Are Your Trade Secrets Secret?
On February 19, 2004, Governor Rendell signed into law Senate Bill 152 which provides Pennsylvania Courts with the legal framework for trade secret and confidential information protection. Act 14 of 2003 provides injunctive relief for the actual threatened or misappropriation of a trade secret as well as money damages and an award of your attorney’s fees against those who steal those secrets you work so hard in your business to develop. The Pennsylvania Bar Association actively lobbied for the passage of this law.
What all this means is that if you develop a particular process, name, slogan, logo, formula, drawing, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, process, recipe or database of information, whether it be client names, vendor lists or a method of conducting your business, if someone seeks to use that information to their own advantage and to your disadvantage or to otherwise violate your policy of secrecy, you now have a law that you can use to prevent them from doing so. Previously, all you had were common law principles, a hodge podge of inconsistent and weak guidelines which often were inadequate.
The key to successful enforcement of your rights is to establish a clear and specific policy and procedure of confidentiality or secrecy. Without that key component, the benefits of the law and thus your protections are lost. We can help you design the appropriate secrecy policy and procedure as well as the enforcement of your valuable rights. You control whether you will “pay a little bit now, or a whole lot more later”. Please take a moment now to analyze your secrecy and confidentiality policies so that you do not regret the loss of your most valuable trade secrets in the future.
Miller, Turetsky, Rule & McLennan, P.C. has served thousands of clients in Southeastern Pennsylvania and beyond for over 45 years. The firm is a full-service, general practice law firm dedicated to providing the highest quality legal advice, representation and services to individuals, families and businesses across Pennsylvania. The experience of the law firm enables the firm to handle the diverse legal issues and complex situations encountered by a wide range of clients.
If you require additional information on this recent development, please contact us.
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