CFO2219. Developing a Trade Secret Protection Program and Reduce Theft Risk

Companies rely on trade secrets for competitive advantage. Theft of those assets by an increasingly mobile workforce hurts companies by unfairly empowering competitors who have not invested the financial and intellectual capital, and the time, needed to create them. Protection programs can deter and limit trade secret misappropriation, and ready a company to go to court for injunctive relief to stop a competitor’s use and seek damages.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify trade secrets and maintain secrecy through limiting access to those who need to know, contracts and policies, and vigilance techniques
• Determine how to guard against new hires bringing trade secrets that belong to their prior employer into your company and creating liability risk
• Evaluate employee exit procedures that protect company trade secrets
• Recognize what to do to if theft of trade secrets is suspected or known