1 / 16

Trade Secrets

Trade Secrets. Chapter 6 presented by Marina Deykun December 3, 2011. “Have you ever had a secret, but then a friend learned it, either by mistake or because you told? ”. Statistics. Annual losses to U.S. firms are between $250 and $300 billion.

sofia
Download Presentation

Trade Secrets

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Trade Secrets Chapter 6 presented by Marina Deykun December 3, 2011

  2. “Have you ever had a secret, but then a friend learned it, either by mistake or because you told? ”

  3. Statistics • Annual losses to U.S. firms are between $250 and $300 billion. • Over 60% of departing employees admit that they took confidential information with them when they left their firms

  4. Definition • Trade secret = information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that: • (1) Derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to the public or to other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and • (2) Is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.” CUTSA § 3426.1, subd. (d)

  5. Definition A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers. ="confidential information" or "classified information". Wiki

  6. Trade Secret v. Patent • Patent covers completed inventions and processes • Trade Secret extends to almost any kind of information that has been kept secret

  7. Trade Secret v. PatentImportant Factors • Stage of development • Subject matter • Standards for protection • Expense • Difficulty of maintaining secrecy • Company culture • Length of protection

  8. Governing Laws and Policies State : • Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) • Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition . Federal: • Economic Espionage Act • Most of the states have ratified the UTSA, except for Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Texas. • CUTSA - The California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (Cal. Civ. Code §§ 3426)

  9. Elements of a Trade Secret • Valuable information • Secrecy • Reasonable security measures

  10. Misappropriation of Trade Secrets may be achieved through three types of conduct: • Acquisition • Disclosure • Use CUTSA § 3426.1, subd. (b) NB: Reverse engineering is not misappropriation

  11. Remedies for Trade Secret Misappropriation • Injunctions: • For actual or threatened misappropriation • Preliminary or permanent • Potential impact on employee mobility • Monetary damages • Criminal remedies: • State laws • Federal Economic Espionage Act

  12. Nondisclosure Agreement Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA) or also knows as Confidentiality Agreement (CA) -is one of the most effective ways to protect trade secrets

  13. Historical trade secrets’ disputes: • Apple v. NeXT • IBM v. Seagate • Wal-Mart v. Amazon.com • Intel v. Broadcom • Microsoft v. Google • Hitachi and Mitsubishi v. IBM

  14. SILVACO DATA SYSTEMS VS. INTEL CORPORATION California Court of Appeal 04/29/2010 FIRACT

  15. PayPal v. Google http://youtu.be/oUGhjs1VT0c http://youtu.be/oUGhjs1VT0c

More Related