Business Breaches: What To Do If Your Trade Secrets Are Misappropriated

When you have taken the time and effort to build up a business, it is essential to protect your company’s internal information and your trade secrets to ensure success. If you suspect that your trade secrets have been breached, you will likely have concerns about what to do next.

Should you reach out to a lawyer? And what will the court do if it agrees that your trade secrets have been misappropriated? Keep reading this article to find out:

• What exactly are trade secrets, and what you can do to help them remain confidential.
• What types of damages you can receive in a breach of trade secrets case.
• The factors that the court will consider when determining the potential remedies for you or your company.

What Are Some Common Types Of Trade Secrets?

Trade secrets are assets of a business that are not generally known to the public and provide economic value to your business. They may include a formula for a product, a device your business designed, or a computer program or software you created.

A trade secret could also include a method, a technique, or a process. It might be financial information about your company, a list of your customers, or other internal valuable assets of your company.

How Do You Assist Companies In Establishing And Maintaining Confidentiality With Their Trade Secrets?

Trade secret confidentiality is critical to eventually enforcing any potential theft of a trade secret. The strongest way to maintain the secrecy of your trade secrets is to have a confidentiality agreement for any of your employees who have access to the trade secret information. This could be part of an employment agreement or a separate contract.

With a confidentiality agreement, your employees are bound to maintain the confidentiality of the trade secret information. This ensures that parameters, information, and details about how that information might be disseminated are clearly laid out. This way, your employees are aware of what their obligations are.

What Legal Remedies Are Available To My Company If Our Trade Secrets Have Been Misappropriated?

If you believe your trade secrets or those of your business have been misappropriated, the first thing you need to do is contact legal counsel. Our immediate step is to determine whether the requirements are met for the particular item to be a trade secret in the first place.

Assuming these requirements are met, there are a few different remedies generally available for the misappropriation of your trade secret. Some of these remedies may include:

• Monetary damages, which could be calculated as the amount of actual loss caused by the misappropriation. Alternatively, it could include compensation for any unjust enrichment to the other party that might be caused by the misappropriation.
• Injunctive relief, which means you are asking the court to enjoin the misappropriating party from further actions to steal or utilize trade secrets they are not entitled to use.
• Reimbursement of your attorney’s fees and court costs.
• Royalties that may be available.

At the end of these types of cases, there is often a court order that controls future actions or dissemination of the trade secret material. If you are concerned about the potential remedies you may receive if your trade secrets have been misappropriated, you should reach out to your attorney.

How Does The Court Determine Damages In These Cases?

The methods the court uses to determine damages typically depend on what you are asking for. If you are asking for monetary damages, the court usually looks at the value of your trade secret, which depends on the nature of what your trade secret is.

The court may also calculate the amount of unjust enrichment of the other party by looking at the monetary benefit they may have realized. In the event of an injunction, the court has to determine whether or not there is any immediate harm, whether or not monetary damages are going to be appropriate, and several other factors.

For more information on Breach Of Trade Secrets In Illinois State, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (630) 608-2124 today.