Trade Secrets

The most valuable assets of a company typically include its intellectual property and confidential information, and the employees entrusted with this information. Both IP and employees can be highly mobile. Our clients range from early stage companies to large multinationals, but have one thing in common:  the need to protect their valuable intellectual property.

Morrison & Foerster regularly advises clients on how to protect against the theft of their IP from both external and internal threats by implementing trade secret protection and information security programs. Often, trade secret protection includes employee agreements or proprietary information agreements with restrictive covenants (e.g., non-competition, non-solicitation, and non-disclosure agreements).

In today's global economy, we assist clients in tailoring the appropriate restrictive covenants under laws which vary widely by state and international jurisdictions.

With the proliferation of technology in the workplace, we also train clients to design and implement effective information security programs and policies to prevent intentional or inadvertent loss of data.

When emergencies arise, our team of trade secret litigators have the experience to handle any trade secret matter. Clients turn to us when faced with trade secret issues because the stakes are so high. Our litigators are often in court seeking or defending against emergency relief including temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions.

Our lawyers frequently appear before juries, judges, and arbitrators to try cases involving misappropriation of trade secrets, the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, restrictive covenants, employee raiding, customer raiding, and departures of key employees.

Our team has litigated some of the most significant trade secret cases in California and the U.S. In 2018, The Legal 500 US recognized us for our cutting-edge work in the area of trade secrets.  

We have recently handled trade secret matters for Accenture, Adobe Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, Hansen Medical, and Konami Digital Entertainment.