Trade Secrets
Overview
In today’s business environment, information is your competitive advantage. Smart management demands a forward looking approach to protecting confidential and proprietary business information. Nothing seems as valuable as when it is lost.
Today’s employees, contractors, vendors, joint venture partners and/or customers can become tomorrow’s competitors. Whether it’s a formula, prototype, experiment, drawing, business method, pricing strategy, marketing plan, manufacturing technique or process, protecting that information as your trade secret and/or confidential information can be critical to maintaining market share, growth and long-term competitive advantage over those who do not know or use those pieces of intellectual property.
Volpe Koenig assists clients in all industries with creating and protecting their trade secrets and confidential information. Our attorneys counsel clients on identifying potential trade secrets and creating policies and procedures to control access to protect and enforce them. We understand the vigilance required for trade secret protection and work with clients in their specific environments to establish practical and effective processes to protect their confidential material that drives economic value from being “secret”.
We approach each assignment with the realization that it may later become necessary to act on your behalf in enforcing your rights and protecting your business interests through negotiations or litigation with offending parties.
Our full service trade secrets competencies include:
- Trade secret audits and risk assessment
- Developing internal trade secret policies, procedures, and agreements
- Reviewing and revising client business agreements
- Conducting on-site training programs
- Preparing nondisclosure and non-compete agreements
- Trade secret license negotiations
- Litigating disputes regarding misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information
Proficiencies & Successes
CannabisVolpe Koenig’s cannabis team works with distributors, retailers, suppliers, and investors to secure and protect their innovations and brands.
Food Wine and SpiritsWe help clients protect their innovations and grow their brands utilizing a combination of patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks.
Processing and ManufacturingWe have experience in a diverse range of industries from industrial enzymes for the food science industry to precision products for the automotive industry.
Attorneys
Key Contacts
IP Insights
IP Insights
Blog Posts
Podcasts
- 09.20.2023
This episode of IP Goes Pop!®, takes you on a journey through the iconic world of the Barbie universe and brand, exploring its deep-rooted connections with pop culture and intellectual property law. Hop in the dream car and journey with Volpe Koenig Shareholders and podcast hosts, Michael Snyder and Joseph Gushue to a land of pink corvettes, with a few pitstops at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Kicking off with a discussion of the recent cinematic triumphs of the Barbie movie released this year (2023), your hosts delve into how this classic brand has been brought to life on the big screen captivating audiences around the globe.
- 12.07.2022
Who holds the patent on gravity? Who collects the royalties for the speed of light? In this episode of IP Goes Pop!, Volpe Koenig Shareholders and podcasts hosts, Michael Snyder and Joseph Gushue, explore what intellectual property (trade secrets, trademarks, patents and copyrights) cannot protect. Hint- some things excluded from IP protection include the Laws of Nature such as gravity, the speed of light and even Einstein’s theory of relativity E=MC2. Abstract ideas are another. But what other “can’t”s stand between you, your idea, and protections for it?
To set the table, this episode begins with a pop culture journey through famous “Can’t” songs and movies. Moving into the intellectual property segment of the show your hosts explore the question ‘Why can't intellectual property rights protect everything?’
In some ways, in order to understand what you can protect you first need to learn what you cannot protect. Intellectual property rights are designed to protect concepts like ideas, inventions, creative works, processes and methods, formulas, brand names, and more. Intellectual property rights cannot be used to protect other concepts like mathematical algorithms and natural phenomenon. Also, with the possible exceptions of trade secrets (if kept secret) and trademarks (if continuously used), intellectual property rights are limited in scope and duration. In other words, after a patent, trademark or copyright expires or is abandoned, your intellectual property rights are no longer protected.
In this episode, you will learn some nuances of intellectual property law such as legal reverse engineering and proper vs. improper means of acquiring a trade secret.
Michael and Joe break down some of the reasons why some ideas may be better suited for trademark, patent, or copyright protection instead of trade secret protection. If you’ve ever wanted to know what you can and cannot do in the IP world, this episode is for you!