A trade secret is vital to many businesses in order to keep their edge. As a business owner, you may wonder how companies such as Coke manage to keep their recipe a complete secret while hiring and firing numerous employees annually. Keeping your trade secret protected is not as tricky as it sounds. The best way to maintain trade secret protection is to establish patterns and policies from the beginning and continually implement them throughout the years of your business.
Paperwork and Trade Secret Protection
The first step that any business should take when protecting a trade secret is securing the proper paperwork. For each employee who will be privy to confidential information, you should have a signed non-disclosure and non-competition agreement. A non-disclosure agreement informs the employee that the information they are becoming privy to is a trade secret, and they may not under penalty of law share it with any unauthorized person. A no-compete clause protects a business by stating that because the employee is privy to the trade secret that gives the company its edge, he may not start his own similar business.
Trade Secrets and Choosing Employees Wisely
Not every person is a good fit for a company. While cheap labor may seem tempting, cheap laborers may not stay around long enough to warrant knowing your trade secret. Furthermore, if your employee turn around is high, it will become much more difficult for you to track who leaked a trade secret in the event of a leak.
Spread Out the Trade Secret
Not every employee at your company needs to know your entire trade secret. The best example of spreading out a trade secret has been done by Coke. Along with the standard forms, Coke will only reveal a small, necessary portion of its recipe to any one employee. In fact, some have speculated that no one at Coke's factory even knows the entire recipe. Only give your employees the information necessary for their day-to-day jobs and make it clear that they cannot share any aspect of the trade secret with any other department.
Stop Trade Secret Leaks
It is always wise for a business to have a business attorney it can contact for situations as necessary. As soon as you suspect a trade secret leak may happen, contact your attorney and seek an injunction. This trade secret protection will ensure that the information is still protected and will serve as an example to anyone else trying to leak your trade secret.