Kurt Kappes Published in Executive Counsel

Kurt's article, "Trade Secrets Can Bite You Coming and Going," complements the editorial focus of the July/August issue of Executive Counsel: "New Complexities in Intellectual Property and IT Management." Kurt writes that the time when most companies take a hard look at what they have done to protect their trade secrets is after the trade secrets may have been compromised. Or, in other instances, when someone who has been hired has brought other potential trade secret information from their prior employer, and the company receives a demand letter. Once litigation has commenced, it is often the case that too little has been done, too late. What many companies are now doing in order to avoid these kinds of situations from arising are trade secret, or IP audits, that include a team that identifies sensitive issues and maintains an implementation program to protect the company's assets. The goal of a trade secret audit is to help employers develop and implement procedures that reduce the risk that an employer’s trade secrets will be improperly disclosed, provide evidentiary support should the need for obtaining legal relief for trade secret theft become necessary, and also limit the risk of a company’s exposure to claims of misappropriation by other companies. The benefits of having more formal procedures in place is that they can help a company protect its valuable trade secrets and prevent unnecessary loss, maintain its competitive edge in the marketplace, notify its employees and third parties of the employer’s interest in protecting proprietary information, educate your employees on what constitutes your confidential information and how to protect it, and the consequences of failing to do so. The idea is to foster a workplace culture where employees understand and appreciate that the employer takes its trade secrets very seriously.