Companies often use non-compete agreements with key employees to protect intellectual property such as trade secrets.
Trade Secrets
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They are trade secrets only if you treat them as such
A federal judge in the Northern District of Illinois recently taught a painful lesson to a business owner. The plaintiff alleged that an employee had taken information that was important and sensitive enough to the company that it qualified as a trade secret.The judge...
The EU removes McDonald’s Big Mac trademark
The Big Mac has been a ubiquitous part of U.S. culture for decades as the flagship burger of McDonald’s. Nonetheless, the same cannot be said for the European Union. The EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) made this clear when it recently ruled that...
Digitalization of trade secrets makes them less secure
At our law firm, we help clients in different industries to protect their trade secrets, meaning private commercial information that can be key to a company’s success. For example, trade secrets may include formulas, manufacturing processes, research, recipes,...
Is former dog-food bag maker barking up right tree?
We have discussed trade secrets in some of our recent posts. A federal lawsuit alleging misappropriation of trade secrets involving the manufacturing processes of Costco dog food bags has been filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Missouri,...
An introduction to trade secrets
A trade secret is any information that provides the trade secret holder with economic value or a competitive advantage precisely because it is not readily known or ascertainable by the general public. Unlike patents, trademarks, and copyrights, trade secrets are not...
Theft of trade secrets costs companies billions every year
Business litigation has been making the news recently. A central focus in many of these cases has been an alleged thefts of trade secrets. One particular dispute involved ride-sharing mogul, Uber, and Waymo, the self-driving car designer. Such high-stakes incidents...
What’s the secret to protecting trade secrets?
As a business owner, you've likely encountered many challenges throughout your journey, perhaps from the startup phase all the way through to when you began turning a profit. One might say that obstacles are par for the course in business; the key is to arm yourself...
Trade secrets central topic of complex legal situation
In Missouri, Kansas and all other states, whistleblowers are protected by law from retaliation in the workplace when they report situations that are illegal or place others at risk. A former Uber transportation employee is a central figure in an ongoing legal battle...