Trade Secrets
The world has rapidly changed. New technologies and remote working arrangements mean that a company’s most valuable information may easily walk out the door with a departing employee and straight to a competitor.
About
Krevolin & Horst attorneys regularly advise clients on preventing such harms. We work with clients to anticipate, prevent, and detect threats. When necessary, we go to court on an emergency basis to protect our client’s rights. Our experience on both sides of these disputes allow us to find avenues for early resolution where possible, and aggressive prosecution or defense of these claims where necessary.
Our clients range from startups to established companies to individual employees, and our work on their behalf has given us a depth of expertise on trade secret issues. Our attorneys have decades of experience in this field and are recognized as experts in this area.
Trade Secrets & Confidential Information
Trade secrets are information that is (1) commercially valuable because it is secret, and (2) kept secret through reasonable measures. Because the definition is so broad, federal and state trade secret laws can be used to protect vast swathes of information, including information that would be difficult or impossible to protect with more formal intellectual property protection efforts.
Information that may be a trade secret includes a list of customer contacts, pricing information, source code, sources of important product components, manufacturing processes, lists of suppliers, strategies, or information about the inner workings of a vital company process or system.
Even if information does not constitute a trade secret under applicable law, proper foresight can protect the confidential information of a company though contractual protections.
Service Highlights
Krevolin & Horst’s cross-practice expertise provides protection from the inception of a trade secret, through court-mandated emergency protective measures.
Foresight
Effective trade secret protection starts well before there are secrets to protect. At Krevolin & Horst, our attorneys are adept at helping clients identify the type of information that is likely to become proprietary and secret, and protecting that information so it remains a valuable asset.
We also help clients develop the internal processes and procedures to keep information confidential, and craft employee and contractor agreements that ensure that company secrets are only used for proper purposes.
Our attorneys monitor the quickly-changing legal landscape on non-competition and other restrictive covenants, and advise clients on how best to protect their trade secrets given the uncertainty with changing federal and state laws.
Litigation
In the trade secret context, acting quickly to obtain protection is absolutely key. Waiting to act can cause a company to lose trade secret protection, lose clients, or irretrievably lose its unique spot in the marketplace.
At Krevolin & Horst, we mobilize quickly to assess the damage and legal avenues, shut down leaks, and swiftly ask a court for injunctive relief where necessary.
Our team regularly litigates, often on an emergency basis, trade secret and competition issues. The firm is frequently successful in obtaining preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders against former employees and competitors, as well as defending against such claims.
We have experience with litigation of covenants not to compete, non-solicitation and non-disclosure agreements, no service agreements, unfair competition, theft of client lists, employee raiding, misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential business information, duty of loyalty, Georgia Trade Secrets Act (“GTSA”), Georgia Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“GUDTPA”), and federal laws including the U.S. Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”), the U.S. Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA), and Economic Espionage Act (EEA).