Employees play an essential role in protecting a company’s trade secrets. Your employees need to know which kinds of information are considered trade secrets. For instance, if you have an online business, your employees must be aware of the need to keep your list of leads private. To avoid any breaches to trade secret protection, you must regularly reinforce the importance of trade secret protection.
Conduct regular compliance trainings
As a business owner, you should set up clear policies and procedures for employees to protect your trade secrets. Additionally, you should include this information in regular employee training sessions to help them identify and safeguard trade secrets. These trainings should include:
- Teaching employees the categories of confidential information
- Emphasizing the importance of trade secrets to the company’s success
- Highlighting the importance of minimal use of personal devices, personal email accounts and file-sharing programs/folders to only what is necessary
- Encouraging employees to report any suspicious activities within the company to address the risks as soon as possible
In addition to training new employees, you must determine how often to conduct training for existing employees as a refresher. Regular training emphasizes the value of your business and its trade secrets, which helps to keep your business running and your employees employed.
Take the extra step to protect your business
If you believe that your trade secrets have been misappropriated or stolen, you may seek a settlement under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). This will help you seek justice for the breach of information that you have worked so hard to protect.
Training your employees helps to protect your company’s valuable trade secrets and avoid legal issues that may arise from a breach of trade secret protection. However, if you suspect any suspicious activity, you must take the necessary action against the employee.