Tag Archives: federal trade secret

Education comes at a price. But not this time. Beck Reed Riden is making available its Ten Minute Trade Secret Training Series videos freely available - and available for free. With the FTC rule banning noncompetes on the horizon and more states limiting the use of noncompetes, it is now more imperative than ever before that companies and employees take steps to protect their trade secrets, other confidential information, and customer relationships.
Once again, we have resounding unanimity on the issues and recommendations to the FTC, as they consider whether to move forward with their plan to ban noncompetes, as well as some nondisclosure agreements and other restrictive covenants. Over 100 lawyers who practice extensively in the area of trade secret and restrictive covenant law agree: federal regulation is likely inappropriate, definitely premature, and, in any event, should be limited.
While we’ve all turned our attention to the FTC’s proposed rule to ban noncompetes, the clock has been running on the public comment periods for the proposed consent orders in the three noncompete enforcement actions announced by the FTC at the beginning of the year. Today, the FTC has publicly released the final order in one of them. The others should be coming soon. And, as we said before, this is likely just the beginning. Make sure that you are not engaging in behavior that is likely to elicit another.
Forty-seven state legislatures as well as Washington, D.C. – with the approval of Congress – have spent years honing their noncompete laws to fit their local communities and industries. In one fell swoop, three Commissioners at the FTC are proposing to undo all of it. With it, they will also eliminate the use of a broad swath of nondisclosure, nonsolicitation, no-service, no-recruit, and no-hire agreements. Companies have six things they need to do now.
Over 50 percent of employees admit stealing company information when they leave for a new job. It’s this “insider threat” that keeps us up at night. To help combat it, we have updated and reissued our training, Protecting Trade Secrets While Working From Home, with improved audio and additional substance.