June 15, 2006
The Trade Secrets Opportunity for Law Firms
In a May edition of The New York Times’ What’s Offline section of nytimes.com, Paul B. Brown reports on business practices involving the protection of trade secrets.
Considering that my career has been spent in the information products and services sectors, trade secrets and intangible property rights are high on my list of concerns. For your business clients, trade secrets are an important part of the value of their business. Trade secrets falling in the wrong hands can harm that value and jeopardize the continuity of your client’s business.
Reminding the law firm’s business clients and prospects that they should take steps to protect that property is an excellent opportunity for the law firm to add value to existing client relationships. It is also likely to win you new business from both existing and new clients.
Brown points to David R. Hannah’s work at the Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, which notes that companies are particularly bad at taking measures to protect their trade secrets. The biggest threat comes from current and previous employees. What are some of the things law firm business clients should be doing?
1. Initially informing employees (in writing) about their responsibilities and obligations for trade secrets
2. Reminding employees frequently (quarterly) in writing
3. Issuing letters to departing employees
4. In some cases, issuing letters to new employers of departing employees reiterating the consequences of disclosing, or acting on, trade secrets
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Filed under Marketing by Tom Collins