In Seyfarth's fourth webinar in its series of 2017 Trade Secrets Webinars, Seyfarth attorneys Robert Milligan and Joshua Salinas were joined by Jim Vaughn, one of California's leading computer forensics experts, presented Trade Secret Protection: What Every Employer Needs to Know. The panel focused on how to help employers navigate the tricky trade secrets waters and provided best practices for trade secret protection.

As a conclusion to this well-received webinar, we compiled a summary of takeaways:

  • Employers should review their non-disclosure and non-compete agreements to determine whether they have accurately defined the scope of categories of their confidential information, as well included the whistleblower immunity language required under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. Additionally, they should determine ensure their agreement complies with recent changes in non-compete law, including legislative changes in Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, and Alabama.
  • Employers should consider how they treat employee personally owned devices for work as well as corporate issued mobile devices. Getting access to those devices may prove to be challenging upon an employee's departure. Having a policy and technology in place to allow the employer to gain access to their data is critical.
  • Effectively protecting trade secrets includes not only creating an internal culture of confidentiality with employees but also limiting information made available to vendors and subcontractors and having appropriate trade secret protection agreements with third-parties.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.