Trade-secret theft comes in many forms and costs companies worldwide hundreds of billions of dollars every year. While competitor or state-led corporate espionage and intellectual property thefts pose an ongoing danger, trade secrets today are increasingly compromised by careless or malicious employees. Such insider threats are as likely to cripple a business that depends on the security of its intellectual property as are the acts of any outside party.
To successfully protect against and respond to information security risks, businesses and organizations require skilled and experienced legal counsel. They need lawyers capable of identifying weaknesses in company security processes, policies, and technologies, and responding swiftly and effectively to all manner of breaches. At Crowell & Moring, our trade secrets attorneys are skilled investigators and crisis managers, as well as seasoned litigators whose work includes obtaining one of the largest contested trade secret verdicts in history. We have years of experience and a proven track record of success working with industry-leading clients to protect trade secrets, both before and after a breach occurs.
Services
Our trade secrets team employs a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to trade secret protection. To ensure that our clients and their information are protected from the full range of threats, we bring together attorneys skilled in labor and employment law, intellectual property law, white collar crime and regulatory enforcement, international trade and dispute resolution, government contracts, litigation, and forensic investigation.
We work with our clients to establish and maintain security protocols, investigate potential threats or security breaches, secure information that has been compromised, and initiate a range of civil and criminal processes to enforce intellectual property rights. Our primary goal is to keep our clients’ businesses running smoothly, confident that their proprietary information and interests are protected.
Our services include:
- Investigating potential security breaches and managing comprehensive forensic reviews and on-site inspections.
- Working with U.S. government agencies and law-enforcement officials to investigate and develop criminal cases arising from trade secret theft, as well as to defend such cases.
- Providing preemptive counsel on trade secret protection, conducting audits and portfolio analyses, and developing robust on-boarding and off-boarding programs.
- Preparing and negotiating non-competition, non-solicitation, and confidentiality agreements.
- Working with foreign law enforcement agencies and governments in cases of cross-border theft of trade secrets.
- Pursuing, when necessary, legal actions for the misappropriation of trade secrets, including seeking preliminary injunctive relief to prevent the improper use of wrongfully acquired data.