Introduction Of A Legal Regime For Protecting Trade Secrets | Law&Trust International

According to statistics from leading analytical companies, the frequency and volume of leaks of financial information are growing every year. In this case, the source of the holes is not always third-party attackers. Often the cause of information leakage becomes its availability. The most susceptible to the threat of information leaks are IT companies and high-tech companies.

When a leak of valuable information discovers, the injured party goes to court to protect his interests. To protect one's interests and to compensate for losses incurred as a result of the disclosure of confidential information, it is required to provide evidence of the declaration of data and the occurrence of adverse consequences. Most often, it is impossible to prove the consequences due to the absence of direct damage caused by the disclosure of data, and the problematic linkage between data leakage and company losses.

Undoubtedly, information that has commercial significance and has become known to third parties loses its value and entails the failure of the advantage of monopoly ownership, as well as the appearance of lost profits. Such consequences are difficult to prove in a court of any jurisdiction. As a result, the company receives substantial unprovable losses, loss of competitive advantage and incessant data leakage. Sensing their impunity, unscrupulous individuals will only increase their attempts to borrow valuable information.

Legally competent organization of protection of confidential and valuable information, the correct construction of relations affecting such information, allows you to avoid the above scenario. In the context of globalization and informatization of business relations, the protection of information is the primary task of each company. To ensure data protection, it is necessary to implement a full range of security measures.

HOW TO SET A SECRET TRADE MODE? LEGAL PROTECTION OF TRADE SECRETS

The legal regime for the protection of commercial secrets is a fundamental, legislatively enshrined element of the security of confidential business information.

A trade secret may include any information that has real or potential economic value due to the unknownness of its third parties. For the assignment of specific data to a trade secret will require the establishment of a full mode of trade secrets. A well-chosen trade secret regime protects and applies to know-how, information about workflow organization, customer bases, scientific and technical developments, marketing strategy, essential ideas, etc.

It is not enough to name any data as a commercial secret in a contract or other document. Many entrepreneurs repeat this mistake. However, a trade secret is not a magic tool, but a well thought out mechanism. The data itself is not a commercial secret; it is not protected by law without the real implementation of the secret commercial regime.

Legally competent implementation and implementation of the legal regime of commercial secrets in business activities will provide full protection for the company's valuable confidential information from dishonest employees and sly competing organizations. Below we describe in detail the features of the measures necessary to adopt for the approval of a trade secret regime and the procedure for its introduction.

DEFINITION OF REGISTRY INFORMATION

The primary step in the preparation of a trade secret regime is the definition of a registry or a list of confidential information. It is necessary to identify the following criteria for this information to include any information in the concept of a commercial secret for a) economic value and b) inaccessibility to third parties.

Skipping this stage makes no sense any further work on the establishment of commercial secrets in the organization, so our specialists carry out a thorough analysis of the available information to determine its compliance with the above criteria to include the protected data.

It should note that there are categories of data that cannot be recognized as commercial secrets. Such types are determined by the legislation of each country, and they may include information on the registration of the company, data of its founders, information on wages, and more.

ESTABLISHING AND FIXING THE ORDER OF INTERACTION WITH INFORMATION

Our specialists develop a specific mechanism for handling confidential information within the company for each Client. Such an arrangement requires documenting through the development of regulations and policies to interact with trade secrets. As part of this process, lawyers from Law and Trust prepare a complete package of accompanying documents, develop job descriptions, instructions for handling documentation related to a trade secret, and obtain consent from each employee.

RESTRICTING ACCESS TO INFORMATION FROM INSIDE AND OUTSIDE

It is necessary to determine and narrow down as much as possible the circle of employees who are granted the right to access commercially valuable company information. The specialists of our team select the necessary level of access for each unit and the position of employees based on the tasks of the Client and business characteristics. Thus, the head of the company should have maximum access to any information about the company's activities. The head of the subdivision should have access to the information required for the work of the department entrusted to him, a specific specialist or developer — access to the minimum amount of data necessary to perform his direct duties practically does not have access to valuable information.

CREATION OF TECHNICAL CONDITIONS

 

The absence of an indication of the status of trade secrets in documents, contracts, non-compliance with technical measures to protect data, eliminates all actions taken by an entrepreneur to establish and maintain a trade secret regime.

By a court decision, an employee who has ceased to work in a company due to the distribution of information that is a commercial secret will be reinstated at his former place of work if, as a result of the consideration of the case, the court determines that the documents containing confidential data did not have the necessary signature “Commercial Secret”.

As measures to ensure protection and restrict access to information, physical restriction of access to premises, places of keeping trade secrets can be used. Do not forget about the procedure for destroying documents that contain confidential data.

Law and Trust has extensive experience in creating systems for protecting any kind of information, both on physical media and in electronic form. To protect electronic data, coding, encryption, password setting systems for access to certain information and access level systems are used.

TRADE SECRET PROTECTION

The right to security of information that is a commercial secret arises from the moment a corresponding decision is made. In this regard, we recommend entering a trade secret regime from the moment the project starts its activities. Such information will be provided with protection throughout the life of the trade secret regime. Thus, if your employee stops working for you, he is still obliged not to disseminate information that has become known to him as a result of his activities during the entire period fixed by the terms of the trade secret regime. In some jurisdictions, such as the United States, non-competition agreements also apply that do not allow an employee to work for a competitive company for a specified period.

PARTNER PRIVACY MODE

  • The procedure for interacting with confidential information established within the company can also be extended to relationships with partners, which will allow you to include confidentiality clauses in contracts with counterparties. Such provisions may be distinguished in a separate confidentiality agreement or supplementary agreement to the main contract.

CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT (NON-DISCLOSURE) OF INFORMATION

  • The Confidentiality Agreement, otherwise known as Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA), is one of the most important documents forming the basis for applying sanctions measures for breach of confidentiality. The perpetrator will be held accountable for disclosing information. It worth noting that the greatest effect can be achieved when using NDA, prepared by professionals, as part of the measures used to maintain commercial secrecy.

BENEFITS OF INTRODUCING A TRADE SECRET REGIME

  • As a result of developments by L & T specialists, after the customer managed to establish a trade secret mode in the organization, the Client receives reliable protection of all valuable information necessary for successful work in the field of information technology. When developing software and computer games, the protection of intellectual property and secrets of success, which are a desirable goal for every competitor, are of particular importance. With the introduction of a trade secret regime, you get the opportunity to bring the perpetrators to severe responsibility and the maximum amount of compensation for losses in case of information leakage.

THE SECRET OF PRODUCTION (KNOW-HOW)

  • For the developer of software and computer games, the protection of production secrets (know-how), which is produced by introducing a trade secret regime, is of particular importance.

PATENT LAW OBJECTS AND TRADE SECRETS

  • If you decide to register intellectual property by obtaining a patent, such intellectual property loses the protection provided by the trade secret regime. The copyright holder is forced to reveal the essence of his development to get a patent. Patenting is quite a long and expensive procedure, unlike know-how. Moreover, not all progress can be licensed.

WHY LAW & TRUST INTERNATIONAL?

Company Law and Trust provide services for the preparation of the necessary documents on the observance of trade secrets.
Our experts will help arrange the protection of intellectual property rights properly.

KEY BENEFITS OF LEGAL SERVICES OFFERED BY LAW AND TRUST INTERNATIONAL

Преимущества нашей юридической экспертизы-1

Experience and qualifications. The experience of the L&T International team is more than 15 years. It gives the opportunity for working with cases in many business areas like finance, IT, agriculture, trade and foreign economic activity. Thanks to this experience, our specialists always offer the best selection of services.

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Comprehensive approach and individual solutions. Law and Trust International always provides a vast range of services for our clients, taking into account the individual characteristics of each particular case. Due to this symbiosis, our specialists always fulfil all the wishes of clients in full and taking into account the requests and preferences of customers.

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Monitoring and innovation.Our team keeps tracking the newest and most advanced working methods, as well as the latest legislative, financial and economic information events around the world. It allows lawyers of Law and Trust International to quickly and creatively resolve virtually any issues in the field of legal consulting.

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Privacy and responsibility. The security of our customers' data and respond to them are particularly important in the work of Law and Trust International. For all the time of work, we have not had a single leak of commercial, personal or legal information. It allows us to develop, grow and achieve new opportunities.

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Reputation and result. A team of lawyers of Law and Trust International always welcomes the success of our clients. Reaching new results, we develop new skills that we successfully use in our work. Thanks to successful cases, our clients and our team, we are creating qualitatively new opportunities to achieve the desired result now.

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Svetlana Artemenko
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