What are Trade Secrets?
Protect your business with Greyson Legal's expert trade secrets protection services.
We specialise in creating robust confidentiality agreements, Non-Disclosure Deeds, and tailored employment contracts to safeguard your valuable proprietary information.
We ensure your intellectual property is secure, allowing you to focus on innovation and growth. With trade secrets protection, you can confidently collaborate with partners, employees, and contractors, knowing your business assets are shielded.
Trade secrets, also referred to as know-how and other confidential or proprietary information play an important role, particularly in business.
Trade secrets are typically broadly defined and may include:
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sales methods;
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distribution systems;
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customer databases;
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advertising strategies;
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supplier list;
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manufacturing processes;
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etc
An example of a trade secret is the combination of herbs and spices used in Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Contact Greyson Legal today to learn how we can help protect what matters most to your business.
Confidential Information
Information plays an important role across many areas of society and from a Business perspective can be a valuable asset.
Depending on the situation, it might be necessary to keep certain information out of the public domain by maintaining a level of secrecy. For example, the information might relate to:
New products or services yet to be introduced to the market;
Technical know-how;
Databases;
Financial details about an organisation;
Etc.
Business owners seeking to protect their trade secrets when dealing with third parties may enter into a Confidentiality or Non-Disclosure Agreement.
Where a third party (“Receiving Party”) breaches their confidentiality obligations, various remedies maybe available to the affected party (“Disclosing Party”), such as:
Breach of contract:
the remedies for a breach of the Confidentiality Agreement may be set out in the agreement itself, which could include a right of termination of some other ancillary agreement;
damages - a monetary order by the Court to compensate for losses incurred);
injunction - being an order of the Court that a third party cease using the confidential information or take some other action;
An action in common law referred to as “Breach of Confidence”.
In order for the Disclosing Party to avail themselves of the remedies, certain criteria must be met. For example, in a breach of confidence action there are typically a number of elements that the Courts have said need to be satisfied:
the information must have the necessary quality of confidence;
the confidential information was improperly disclosed;
there was a breach of the obligation of confidence;
damage was suffered by the Disclosing Party by the Receiving Party as a result of the breach of confidence.
The circumstances in each case will determine if a breach has occurred and the remedy available.
What We Do
At Greyson Legal | IP we help our clients to protect their trade secrets. We can do this by providing:
Non Disclosure Deeds
Confidentiality Agreements
Employment Agreements - ensuirng they have appropriate clauses that protect your intellectual property in the hands of your employees
Consultant and Contractors Agreements - helping you protect your trade secrets when dealing with consultants and contractors
As know-how is important to a Business, it follows that appropriate mechanisms should be adopted by Business owners to protect their trade secrets.