Keeping Secret Your Trade Secrets

• Pages: 31-31
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Author: Leslie R. Snider
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

BOOK REVIEW

rade secrets have long been among the most

valuable and inexhaustible tools a business may

have in its arsenal. Trade secrets are essentially, and

oftentimes quite literally, the “secret formula” of how

a business operates and produces its products. For

many business owners, corporate executives, and in-house

attorneys, staying abreast of evolving methods to safeguard

trade secrets is an ever-developing custom. The Guide to

Protecting and Litigating Trade Secrets provides the reader

with best practice advice, case law, statutes, and practice tips

to ensure trade secrets remain protected.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional

workforce drastically shifted. New workplace trends emerged,

from teleworking, remote jobs, virtual court proceedings and

conferences, and Zoom meetings, to an exponential increase

in the use of Skype, WebEx, and Microsoft Teams. March

2020 not only marked the start of a global pandemic but also

the start of a high-tech revolution. The sudden shift in work

structure made dependency on technology the crux of normal

business operations while highlighting the decits in access to

technology and ability to protect information.

Given the new normal of the workplace, now more than

ever, a business needs to take practical steps to shield its con-

dential information. For those looking to secure and litigate

trade secrets while also learning how to identify when a trade

secret has been misappropriated, this is the book that pro-

vides the roadmap.

One of the best things about this book is that it expertly

breaks down the fundamentals of trade secrets, even for

those who are not intellectual property business executives

or practitioners. Authors Gregory S. Bombard, Joanna H.

Kim-Brunetti, Emily J. Friedman, and Jeffrey K. Riffer take

a teaching approach throughout each of the book’s six indi-

vidualized chapters to touch on a wide range of foundations

in trade secret law. The rst two chapters open with a deep

analysis of what a trade secret is and identify when a trade

secret has been misappropriated. The following chapters

inform the reader how to best protect trade secrets, how to

litigate misappropriated trade secrets, and how certain large

jurisdictions have used noncompete agreements as a mecha-

nism to protect trade secrets.

Though this book was published in May 2020, it is as if

the authors predicted the technological changes the COVID-

19 pandemic would bring. The book highlights the predatory

nature of data breaches in the new digital world and how to

ensure trade secrets do not fall prey.

So how does a business safeguard trade secrets when

the physical safety of an ofce and access to its fortications

are stripped away? Whether working from home, working

on a hybrid schedule, or shifting back to traditional full-

Keeping Secret Your Trade Secrets

Guide to Protecting and Litigating Trade Secrets is available at http://bit.ly/LN482-trade-secrets.

time work in the

ofce, Chapter

3 is a gold mine

of information

for protecting

trade secrets dur-

ing a pandemic.

Sections IV and

V of the chapter

directly address

physical safety

measures and

high-tech protec-

tion of informa-

tion.

Chapter 4

takes the baton

from Chapter 3

and delves fur-

ther into how

trade secrets can

be regulated and

protected via use

of noncompete agreements with employees. Section I of the

chapter focuses on six state jurisdictions with “signicant

commercial, research, and technology hubs.” The chap-

ter’s exceptionally meticulous and comprehensive analysis

of noncompete agreements in California, Florida, Illinois,

Massachusetts, New York, and Texas highlights how they

have taken “divergent approaches” toward using noncompete

agreements to defend trade secrets.

The preceding chapters and the ones that follow like-

wise provide copious amounts of practice tips, case law, and

statutes to bolster the reader’s ability to understand, protect,

and litigate trade secret law. From a litigator’s standpoint, the

well-intertwined use of the law woven throughout the book

is critical in cutting down time spent in research and allows

for more energy to be spent in analysis of matters. The 11

appendices at the conclusion of the book include everything

from the Defend Trade Secrets Act, to model nondisclosure

agreements, to sample company use of technology policies, to

various Restatements, and more.

If one’s business wants to implement or update policies

to better adapt to the emergent changes in the workplace

and the digital world, the Guide to Protecting and Litigating

Trade Secrets is invaluable. Whether one is a business owner,

assists in operating a company, or provides legal counsel to

the same, this book should remain in plain view.

By Leslie R. Snid er, Litigation News Contributing E ditor

WINTER 202 3 • VOL. 48 NO. 2

31 | ABA LITIGATION SECTIO N

Published in Litigation News Volume 48, Number 2, Winter 2023. © 2023 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or

stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.