Many companies across the globe owe their success to some kind of a trade secret. Whether it’s a special ingredient in a grandma’s recipe, a unique knitting technique, or a closed-source software tool, safeguarding this secret is what often gives these organizations a competitive advantage.
While some laws protect intangible assets — including trade secrets — in the United States, businesses need to take additional precautions to keep their valuable assets safe. For example, they should adopt appropriate measures and ensure all employees do their part in trade secrets protection.
This article lists some of the best practices for protecting your company’s trade secrets. Apart from identifying what needs protection in the first place, you should also label protected documents, secure computers, develop a business continuity plan, and set up employee training programs and policies.
Here is everything you need to know about keeping your company’s most valuable secrets away from the prying eyes of the competition.
Identify and Protect Your Trade Secrets
The first step in protecting your company’s trade secrets is identifying what needs protection. Keep in mind that trade secrets can be anything from a client list and marketing strategy to a manufacturing process, specific HPC cloud software, or a chemical formula. The things you may want to keep to yourself will usually differ from those your competitors keep under the lock.
Once you have identified your company’s most valuable information, you need to take steps to protect it. It usually means placing the assets under physical and technological security, as well as developing policies and procedures to control access to this information. For example, if you have a client list, you might consider storing it in a locked filing cabinet or password-protecting it on your computer.
Monitor Where You Store the Information
Once you have identified what needs protection, you also need to monitor where your organization stores the information and who has access to it. For instance, if you have a prototype of a new type of 3D printing machine, you need to know what happens to it at all times.
Where is it stored? Are your employees using it for marketing purposes? How many people know about its existence? Are the employees working on it allowed to share news about it with other employees?
By monitoring where your company’s information is stored and who has access to it, you can better control who has access to it and ensure it is only used for authorized purposes.
Label Protected Documents
Another vital step in protecting your company’s trade secrets is labeling protected documents. Doing so will help you control access to these documents and ensure that only authorized individuals have access to them.
In many situations, it is what makes or breaks your company in court. For example, if you’re not able to prove that a particular document was confidential at one time, the courts might rule that you can’t claim it as a trade secret.
That’s why your employees need to understand what needs protection and what doesn’t. The only way to ensure confidentiality is by applying some kind of a label on the document itself. You could put a watermark, stamp, or another type of an “identifiable mark” on it. For example, if you have a file that needs particular protection, you might want to label it “Confidential” or “For Authorized Use Only.”
Secure Computers
Securing computers is an essential part of protecting trade secrets. If a portable storage device with confidential information is stolen, it can pose a significant threat to your business. Therefore, you should do everything to protect the computers used by your employees.
Using robust encryption software to store sensitive information on hard drives is an excellent decision. You should also update the antivirus solution installed on company computers to ensure no malware will be able to steal any data. Additionally, you need to install a firewall to prevent hackers from accessing the network and stealing files.
You could also consider storing your assets on a secure server that is only accessible to authorized individuals. This way, only a designated group of people will be able to access them.
Develop a Business Continuity Plan
Having a business continuity plan (BCP) in place is one of the best ways to protect your trade secrets. This plan should outline how your company will continue to operate in the event of a disaster, such as a fire or a flood.
For example, if your company’s building burns down, your BCP should contain instructions on how to access all of your data and other vital records, as well as where to keep them during the rebuilding process. It should also have a list of people who have access to this information and their contact details.
Some of the most important elements to include in a business continuity plan are:
- an inventory of your company’s critical information and where it is stored,
- a plan for backing up this information,
- a plan for how your company will continue to operate if this information is lost.
BCPs help organizations make crucial information accessible even when there’s a crisis. So, create one before you find out it is already too late.
Set up Employee Training Programs
An employee training program is one of the first things you should focus on concerning trade secrets protection. Training your employees on what information they can disclose and what they need to safeguard is a great way to ensure they will not inadvertently leak your organization’s secrets.
Most employees do not realize they might be disclosing important information without even realizing it. A training program helps them understand their obligations and the consequences of disclosing a company’s trade secrets.
In your training program, you could include information on the penalties for sharing the company’s secrets and outline the importance of keeping this information confidential. You may also talk about other subjects, showcasing examples of good and bad practices or giving a brief overview of current projects that are strictly confidential.
Set up Policies and Procedures
As mentioned before, your employees need to understand the risks that an unprotected secret may pose to the company. You should also make sure they know what actions they can and cannot take regarding a particular secret. Setting up policies and procedures can help you with that.
You can use these policies and procedures to outline how employees should handle your company’s trade secrets and other confidential information. For example, you may want to prohibit people from using specific information in their personal projects (including side-projects) or at other companies, even if they quit.
Having such protection protocols in place will give you some peace of mind, knowing that your company’s secrets are well-protected.
The Bottom Line
In many cases, your company’s trade secrets are the main reason for its success. But, to keep this information protected, you need to take appropriate measures and ensure that all of your employees understand how important it is to keep your company’s trade secrets to themselves.
For starters, you might want to consider storing your most valuable assets in a locked filing cabinet or password-protecting it on your computer. You could also consider labeling protected documents and setting up employee training programs and policies. Besides, developing a business continuity plan and setting up trade secret protection protocols are also excellent ideas.
Follow the steps outlined above and enjoy complete control over your company’s trade secrets. Good luck!
