Keeping your trade secrets protected is essential to the functioning of your business and to what makes it unique. When your trade secrets are the backbone of a successful operation you want to protect them with vigor. Should your competition get ahold of your valuable trade secrets it could irreparably harm your company.
This is why it is common practice for businesses to have employees and third parties sign legal documents called non-disclosure agreements as a means to protect a company’s precious intellectual property. Often, much effort and research have gone into developing practices and processes that a business uses to stand out and be profitable. An NDA is a legal document that basically allows one party the ability to file a suit against another party if trade secrets were misappropriated.
If you need help drafting a solid NDA or would like legal guidance on what practices are best implemented to protect your trade secrets, in California, Leiva Law has the Los Angeles business attorneys you want on your side assisting your efforts.
Can an NDA Protect Your Business’s Trade Secrets?
NDAs are not an infallible means to prevent trade secrets from being leaked. They offer some amount of obligation to those that sign not to exchange coveted secret company information with parties who should not have access to it. A person may still decide, for whatever reason, to publicly disclose trade secrets. In some instances, this can happen inadvertently without malice. Meaning, the party that discloses such information may have accidentally done so.
Intentionally or not, once a company’s trade secrets are out, the harm that the company suffers can be substantial. Even though the document provides a means to take legal action against the party that revealed the trade secrets, this may not be enough to remedy the harm that the company sustained from the information that was made public.
It can be very hard to undo the destruction that a business could suffer once its private trade secrets are made known. So, the best advice for business owners is that using an NDA is a necessary preventative measure that should be in place. Because these documents can many times be straightforward and broad, writing them with more detail could help. You can have your NDA written to be laser-focused on how to handle confidential information. For example, protected information may have to be labeled as such before it passes from one person to the next.
Ultimately, NDAs can be breached and your company can be put at risk of sustaining harm as a result. What you do along with the NDA is also meaningful. A good rule of thumb is to only talk about information with another party that you absolutely have to tell them, keep as much to yourself as possible. If there is information that is unnecessary for another party to know, you do not need to offer it up.
Speak with a Los Angeles Business Attorney Today
If you need assistance with a legal challenge your business is facing the Los Angeles business litigation attorneys at Leiva Law can help. Please call Leiva Law today to schedule a free consultation at (818) 519-4465.