A new movie release this summer, Paranoia, is a thriller film about corporate espionage at a rival technology company. In the movie, companies battle for rights to intellectual property and trade secrets.  Surprising to some, the movie’s storyline is not far off from what happens in the business community.  Technology rapidly changes and new business developments happen frequently, especially for startups. To protect this type of valuable information, companies should implement policies and procedures in place to help protect trade secrets to avoid situations such as those depicted in Paranoia.

As your startup moves forward, you need to take great care to protect your intellectual property and trade secrets. As the growth of the business moves forward, you will need to share their concepts and ideas with outsiders for assistance, associations, production strategies and for many other reasons. Before sharing these potentially lucrative ideas, consider first the reliability of the person with whom you are planning to share your ideas.  Hopefully, the person was referred to you by someone you trust who has worked with him or her in the past.  Next, consider requiring the person to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

You should also consider the availability of registering your trademark, copyright and patents to provide you with the maximum protections afforded by law. This is especially true when multiple persons jointly create these lucrative ideas and concepts together. It is not uncommon for a developer to share their ideas with others potentially exposing themselves to great intellectual property and financial losses.

Preventive action can and should be taken when you think you are in the process of creating a lucrative product, service or concept. An audit of your business’s intellectual property is a great way to identify these intangible assets.  Our attorneys are experienced in conducting these audits and formulating plans to protect what you have created whether by registering marks and other works or by implementing policies with your employees and other workers. Your circumstances, your ideas and the parties involved will dictate the terms needed in these type of documents. Seek our office in the event you find yourself in a similar situation. We can discuss available options to protect you, your ideas and your trade secrets on both a domestic level and international scale if needed.