What are the ways to violate trade secrets?
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What are the ways to violate trade secrets?
I am being accused of violating trade secrets. What are the ways I can be found guilty?
Asked on January 21, 2011 under Business Law, New Mexico
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
If you were given access to a company's properietary information in some private way--for example,as an employee, where you should only use it for the company's benefit; or after signing some non-disclosure/confidentiality agreement; or because of your role doing some other work for the company in a way that establishes a relationship of trust (e.g. as an employee at the bank or their lawyer's office)--and then used those secrets yourself or passed them on to 3rd parties with no righty to them, you violated trade secrets. So if any facts like this can be shown, you committed the violation and could be sued.
Defenses would be:
1) you obtained the information from public sources (e.g. by "Googling" it), which means you did not get it improperly (and it's probably not a secret anyway)
2) when you were given the information, there was no indication it was secret, sensitive, or confidential, so you did not do anything wrong by using it or passing it along--though note that some information, like customer lists or future product plans, is usually considered to always be confidential and proprietary
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