A trade secret is a broad term in the legal field for any formula, device, pattern, or compilation of information that can be used in the business environment. The trade secret is unknown to others and is used to have a competitive advantage in the market.

Here is a list of common trade secrets:

- accounting, recruiting, financial and legal information
- valuable documents that are owned by a company – laboratory notebooks, blueprints, drawings, test data, and technical manuals
- purchasing, marketing, and customer information
- unpatented processes and inventions, future products and designs, research projects, and unique products

Trade secrets are protected by common law, federal and state criminal statutes, and other legislation. Trade secret protection differs from patent protection. While patent protection is valid only for specific inventions, designs, and processes, trade secret protection is available for all types of information and ideas. As long as the trade secret is unknown to other companies, it is protected by American legislation. Similarly, while patent protection lasts for 20 years, trade secret protection in Doral may last indefinitely.

What are the best trade secret protection strategies?

#1 – Identify your company's valuable trade secrets

The first thing to do when protecting your trade secrets is to identify them. Here are some of the most important factors to consider:

- Is this information unknown outside the company?
- How secretive is this information? Do your employees know about it?
- What is the value of the information to your company? Can it be used by your competition?
- How difficult would it be for others to steal this information and use it to their advantage?

Implement a protection mechanism after you identify the information that needs protection. Talk to a good attorney specialized in trade secret law in Monroe County to learn how to implement the measures.

#2 – Develop your trade secret policy

It's important to have a written Trade Secret Protection Policy for every information you want to protect in your company. This document should always be drafted together with an attorney specialized in trade secret law in Monroe County in order to get the full protection. The written policy comes with major advantages:

- your staff knows about the importance of the trade secret
- managers know what to do when trade secrets must be revealed to outsiders
- it demonstrates your company's commitment to adequate trade secret protection, which is very important in case of litigation

#3 – Educating your staff about the importance of trade secret protection

A good Trade Secret Protection Policy should make it very difficult or impossible for your competition to obtain your trade secrets. Unfortunately, employees are a serious threat to that goal. In many cases, employees reveal important trade secrets inadvertently. Unscrupulous employees rarely divulge these secrets. Terminated employees can also reveal trade secrets out of spite or for financial reward. It's very important to educate and train your employees in order to prevent this from happening. Trade secret protection in Doral provides various ways of doing this.

Every employee should be educated about trade secret protection before they are hired, throughout their employment, and after leaving the company. During job interviews, the employee should be given a copy of the company's Trade Secret Protection Policy. Every employee that has access to valuable trade secrets should be required to sign detailed confidentiality agreements.

Periodic presentations on the topic should be done to all employees. These meetings should occur at least once per year and attendance should be mandatory. Managers should also pay attention to employees' suggestions on how to improve the system.

The employees who leave the company should go through an exit interview. During this process, the former employee will be reminded of his legal and ethical obligations to maintain the company's important trade secrets. The confidentiality agreement should be reviewed during this process.

#4 – Mark the documents that contain your company's secrets

You should implement a uniform system for marking secret documents. All documents should mention the following:

- the name of the trade secret owner
- whether the document is confidential or contains trade secrets
- whether the disclosure of the information is strictly prohibited

#5 – Isolate the most important trade secrets

The most important trade secrets should be isolated and stored safely in a locked depository. Depending on the size of the company and the number of secret documents, this area should feature multiple rooms. Digitizing these documents is very important. Ideally, a company should isolate these documents both physically and digitally, on separate, secure servers. The purpose of this physical security is to restrict and eliminate access by third-party organizations. These measures also prevent trade secret theft and leaks, while also providing a mechanism for tracking the access to these secret documents. Only a very small number of specified individuals should have access to this depository. Talk to an attorney specialized in trade secret law in Monroe County in order to learn more about document protection.

#6 – Maintaining computer secrecy

Trade secrets are often stored in computer files. These files are just as important as written, physical documents. The files should be stored on secure servers and access to them should be limited only to authorized employees. Each employee should receive separate login and password information. Computer items, like tapes, disks, and other storage media should be physically isolated and locked up to avoid easy access. Learn more about trade secret protection in Doral by talking to a licensed attorney.

#7 – Restrict public access to your office or facilities

Unfortunately, not all trade secrets are embodied in documents. Some trade secrets can be visible by a person walking around your office or facilities. For instance, the type of machinery used during the manufacturing process, the techniques used by your employees, and the layout can be considered important trade secrets. These secrets can be easily revealed to visitors and information leaks are possible. Other secrets can be leaked via overheard conversations, documents left in plain view or unattended waste baskets. Make sure to protect your company against every type of information leak.

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