"...a trade secret once lost, is, of course, lost forever."Anacomp, Inc. v. Shell Knob Servs., 93 Civ. 4003 (PKL), 1994 U.S. Dist. Lexis 223 (S.D.N.Y. 1994).
Like eavesdropping and other forms of espionage, properly executed, you'll never know. Only the failed, suspected, obvious and fortuitously uncovered cases surface. And, of those... very few are documented in court records.
We can extrapolate the depth of trade secret espionage from documented court records.
Thanks to R. Mark Halligan, a Partner at Nixon Peabody LLP in Chicago, this is fairly easy to do. He keeps track of trade secret cases at his Web site - tradesecretshomepage.com It is billed as, "The most complete source for trade secret information on the Web!"
On with the show!
Let's look at the trade secret cases in Mr. Halligan's vault. (Click here. Stand back.) WOW! Just think... those are the cases which made it to court, and got reported - the tip of an apparently huge knowledge-berg of melting profits.
Computation: Chances look very good someone (or many people) have, are, or will be, picking your corporate pockets, too.
Did you know?: The courts determine the existence of a trade secret based on six factors. One of them is... "What security measures (above and beyond normal security) have been taken to protect the trade secret?"
Solutions:
- Make friends now with Mr. Halligan and myself. Besides due diligence, our services are very cheap insurance.
- Check out The Trade Secret Office. It provides software products that make determination of trade secret status simpler and more concrete. FREE Trade Secret Primer.
- Visit Professor Jon Cavicchi's The Trade Secrets Vault for late breaking news.
