Trade Secrets & Confidential Information

A trade secret is something that either:

• Doesn’t fall within the definition of other intellectual property types, such as a patent
• You don’t wish to submit an application for as it’s sensitive (as there’s a level of disclosure required).

Things that might be considered trade secrets include a secret recipe, a manufacturing process, pricing data or a customer list. For a piece of information to be considered a trade secret, it needs to be commercially valuable, and a true secret known by only a few people. You also need to take reasonable steps to protect the information, such as through the use of confidentiality agreements with suppliers, business partners and customers.

The areas we can offer support on are:

• Protection - we help you identify, catalogue and audit your rights. We work with you to create processes and procedures to secure and monitor your rights. We provide training to key employees/contractors on best practices and understand the importance of certain policies and procedures to prevent the misuse of confidential information.
• Commercialisation – we can help you buy, sell, licence or commercialise your confidential and proprietary business information, prepare Confidentiality Agreements when you need to share your valuable information and prepare agreements for employees and contractors who are creating sensitive business information or ideas.
• Disputes, litigation and enforcement - our specialist IP litigators have experience enforcing and defending disputes relating to the misuse of proprietary business information, including securing urgent injunctions to prevent threatened misuse, particularly when staff leave and move to a competitor.  

Experience working with a range of businesses 

We know how important it is to protect your business’s confidential information. Our trade secrets lawyers work with a wide range of clients in this area and have a huge amount of experience protecting and enforcing rights. 

Specialist lawyers in other legal areas 

Protecting trade secrets can often involve specialist lawyers from a number of different areas, including employment, commercial and litigation. As a law firm we have people in all these areas and can build a team around your needs. 

Renowned litigators

We’re renowned litigators with a proven track record. No matter how complicated the issue, you can rely on us to get the best outcome.