“Know-How”: Fundamentals of Protecting Your Client’s Trade Secrets
The value of many businesses consists not in tangible assets but in the services they provide – what they do and how they do it. Trade secrets can consist of everything from business and financial plans and models to bids for new business, vendor lists, and processes and designs. Trade secrets are not merely mechanical designs or plans. Rather, trade secret law encompass much the “know how” that businesses have developed slowly over time and is the essence of their value. In service-based businesses, trade secret protection is of surpassing importance. This program will discuss the various forms of trade secrets, threats to their protection in the workplace, fundamental techniques and plans to protect them from loss, and strategies for not losing their value in common business transactions.
- Forms of trade secrets – processes, financial plans, vendor information, bids
- Essential planning and techniques for protection in the workplace
- Inbound v. outbound risks to losing trade secret protection & value
- Sources of “infection” from new hires, temporary workers and contactors
- Business transaction strategies for doing the deal while protecting trade secret value
Jessica Brown is a partner in the Denver office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, where she represents clients regarding employment and privacy law matters, including matters that intersect with intellectual property law, such as noncompete agreements and trade secrecy programs. She has successfully represented clients in connection with claims for misappropriation of trade secrets, trademark and trade dress infringement, breach of restrictive covenants, and unfair competition as well. Ms. Brown has substantial experience defending nation-wide and state-wide class action lawsuits alleging, for example, gender discrimination under Title VII, failure to permit facility access under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and failure to pay overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Ms. Brown received her B.A., with honors, from the University of Colorado and her J.D., with high honors, from the University of Texas School of Law.
Daniel P. Westman is a partner in McLean, Virginia office of Morrison & Foerster, LLP, where he is chair of the firm’s trade secret practice and co-chair of the firm’s employment and labor practice. He has 30 years experience representing companies in trade secret, employment, employee mobility, and computer fraud litigation and counseling matters since. Mr. Westman is management co-chair of the Sarbanes-Oxley subcommittee of the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section. He is the lead author of the book, Whistleblowing: The Law of Retaliatory Discharge, Second Edition (Washington, D.C.: BNA Books, 2004 & Supp. 2008), which focuses on the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Mr. Westman received his A.B. in history, with distinction, from Stanford University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
