Nicholas Lee, David Pardue, and Brian Stoltz explored how and why companies should treat trade secrets as an asset in their portfolio — and how best to protect them — during Parker Poe’s seventh annual Business Litigation Forum. 

Nicholas, David, and Brian highlighted recent court cases that resulted in multimillion dollars in damages for companies over alleged trade secret misappropriation and other recent trends in trade secret litigation. They highlighted, for example, that since the passing of the Defend Trade Secret Act in 2016, the number of civil trade secret cases filed in federal court has increased by 30%. In a majority of those cases, an employee or former employee is the alleged person to have misappropriated the trade secrets. They were joined on the panel by Maria Minsker, deputy general counsel and vice president at Sunbelt Rentals. 

The panel provided insights for how companies can safeguard their trade secrets, including through policies that address the identification of trade secrets, access and use, and monitoring and enforcement. Some strategies include conducting exit interviews and having departing employees sign “exit agreements” and providing those employees reminders about any confidentiality/non-compete obligations. 

The Business Litigation Forum also included Parker Poe attorneys discussing strategies for corporate counsel on the rise of class actions, as well as an overview of legal ethics.