We are pleased to announce the webinar “Protecting Trade Secrets and Intellectual Property in Business Transactions” is now available as a podcast and webinar recording.

In Seyfarth’s ninth installment of its 2014 Trade Secrets Webinar series, Seyfarth attorneys focused on considerations involving protecting trade secrets and intellectual property in business transactions, including, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other collaborative arrangements.

As a conclusion to this well-received webinar, we compiled a list of key takeaway points, which are listed below.

  • The protection of intellectual property is critical in joint venture and other agreements in order to protect what, many times, is some of the most important assets of the company. These protections may include protecting the confidentiality of the information and addressing what rights each party will have in the intellectual property after the transaction or venture.
  • Companies should protect their trade secrets at every level of the employee hierarchy.  Executives and high-level employees usually have employment agreements that address confidentiality and the handling of trade secret information.  Mid-level managers and lower level employees are often over-looked.  It is important to have all employees enter into confidentiality agreements and, in many cases, intellectual property assignment agreements.
  • Regardless what protections are put in place, it is very important to be aware of law changes in the states where the company has employees and to revise agreements to address any changes in the law.

Beginning in January 2015, we will begin another series of trade secret webinars. The first webinar of 2015 will be “2014 National Year in Review: What You Need to Know About the Recent Cases/Developments in Trade Secrets, Non-Compete, and Computer Fraud Law.” To receive an invitation to this webinar or any of our future webinars, please sign up for our Trade Secrets, Computer Fraud & Non-Competes mailing list by clicking here.