Trade Secret Law and Business Law Specialist

Mishandling business information can happen to any business with devastating consequences, including the loss of competitive advantages and a sharp impact on the company’s profitability.  In an effort to increase efficiencies, businesses permit more and more information to reside in the cloud or to be accessed remotely. It is increasingly difficult to impose strict access and to secure the necessary but confidential business information contained in every business plan, business negotiation, marketing plan, customer lists and financial information that constitute the foundation of every business enterprise. 

Quite often confidential information is disclosed not by intentional collaboration with a competitor, but by employees and contractors using flawed procedures that result in the inadvertent disclosure of trade secrets to business partners, vendors, outside consultants, and contractors. 

Savvy businesses can take a number of proactive steps to protect their trade secrets, intellectual property, customer relationships, and other confidential information.  The Burke Law Firm can help secure your intellectual capital and identify the protective measures your business must  implement in order to guard your valuable information from unauthorized access or inadvertent disclosure. The firm can help your business design a comprehensive protection program for all business agents needing access to your confidential information. Innova's services include: 

• Developing procedures, policies, and agreements to govern the employer-employee relationship 
• Drafting intellectual property protection policies for employee handbooks 
• Conducting trade secrets audits in collaboration with the client to determine what information should be protected and identifying which employees need access to such information 
• Reviewing computer data and cloud service practices to ensure that confidential information is properly secured, to prevent its deliberate theft, and to employ forensic tools to detect unauthorized access, theft by employees or agents, or espionage by competitors
• Assisting Human Resource departments with the development of employee training materials so that all employees are knowledgeable in and follow information security procedures
• Drafting intellectual property assignment agreements so that your business owns all of the rights in intellectual property created by an employee while working for your company 
• Developing security procedures to limit access to software, data and facilities 
• Reviewing the restrictions on employment that might apply to a potential new hire 
• Developing an on-boarding strategy and appropriate agreements for new hires, identifying the potential for claims to be made against the employee and the company, and proactively mitigating the risk of such claims 
• Preparing termination and exit protocols for employees leaving the company, and security measures which must be implemented to safeguard confidential information from being accessed after a resignation or termination