If your company has a trade secret, you might have an advantage over other businesses in Pennsylvania. A trade secret can be anything that sets you aside from your competitors, such as a recipe, formula, invention, program, device or method. Trade secrets aren’t protected by copyright law, so it’s important to keep them under wraps. Otherwise, you might lose what makes your business successful.
How can you protect your trade secrets?
To start, you should identify the trade secrets that you want to protect. Mark this information as confidential, and then decide who should have access to it. Ideally, this will be as few people in your company as possible. If your trade secrets leak to the public, anyone could use that information for their own purposes.
Once you’ve decided who gets access to your trade secrets, you need to take steps to protect their secrecy. You could ask people in your company to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits them from sharing this information with anyone. If they break the agreement, you might be able to sue them. You should also teach people in your company about the importance of trade secrets and why they must not share this information with anyone.
Finally, you should have a plan of action in the event that your trade secrets are stolen. If you act quickly enough, you might be able to seize the information before it’s leaked to the public. If not, you could take legal action in certain circumstances. This is just one reason why it’s smart to have an attorney on your team when you start your own business.
How might an attorney help you with trade secrets?
Protecting your trade secrets could make or break your company, especially when you’re just starting out. However, the laws surrounding copyright, patents and trade secrets can be a little confusing. An attorney may help you protect your trade secrets and keep certain information from leaving your company. Legal professionals may also help you with other business-related legal issues like contracts, agreements, employment disputes and buying and selling properties.