{"id":112,"count":5,"description":"Trade secrets are knowledge developed by a company throughout its activities and capable of conferring a competitive advantage over its competitors. Any knowledge can qualify as a trade secret provided that it has two basic principles. First, it must be confidential, that is, it cannot be in the public domain or obvious to one skilled in the art. The second principle lies in the need for the company to take reasonable precautions to keep the knowledge secret. There is no consensus surrounding precautions to be put in place. The question, therefore, must be considered on a case by case basis. However, there are some controls that, if possible, should be observed by companies.\r\n<strong>In Brazil, the protection of trade secrets is yet little explored by businesspeople, although it finds solid support in the Federal Constitution, Industrial Property Law and other laws. It happens that the identification and protection of trade secrets can generate significant profits for Brazilian companies, even small ones.<\/strong>\r\n<em>In fact, trade secrets are not a matter solely for large corporations. Many small and medium size companies have a list of clients, list of suppliers, list of materials, ways of establishing and calculating prices, strategic plans, marketing techniques, industrial processes, formulas, computer programs, demographic data or even their own methods of doing business. All these elements, and many others, can constitute a trade secret and, as such, represent an important asset for the company.<\/em>\r\nMauro Ivan C. R. dos Santos\r\nAdvogado\r\nA company must identify as precisely as possible their trade secrets. From there on, well-defined rules for protection should be established, in writing, and the whole body of staff should be informed of them, as well as service providers and any other parties that in some way are involved in the activities of the company. All documents, memos, drawings, diagrams, lists, computer programs and other items that may contain trade secrets must be identified clearly as confidential. Access to places where trade secrets are disposed or stored should be kept to the smallest number of people possible. In addition to this, access must contain physical barriers, such as doors, alarms, locks and passwords, etc. All visitors must sign a control sheet on entry and exit from the company\u2019s premises, specifying, moreover, the purpose of the visit and the responsible person within the company. Promotional material, newsletters, speeches, lectures or any kind of external disclosure must be analysed before its publication. The protection of trade secrets does not depend on the existence of confidentiality agreements entered into between a company and its employees. These agreements, however, are proving the best way to protect them as long as the scope is acceptable and they do not violate the law in force.\r\nIn addition to these precautions, it is important to be careful with the knowledge that has been made available to an employee or service provider at the end of the relationship. For the duration of the professional relationship, the employee acquires a lot of knowledge inherent to the business that can include trade secrets and basic information, such as the profile of the consumer or the type of media for which the promotion of a product is most effective. In addition to this, often employees develop close relationships with sales people, clients and suppliers, all capable of improving the income of a deal and, therefore, with commercial value. With the aim of regulating these post-termination relations, it is increasingly common to establish non-competitive clauses in employment contracts. These contract clauses are, as a rule, acceptable, provided that they do not contain abusive terms, capable of preventing entry into a new job for an excessive period of time or unfairly restricting the performance of the functions of the employee in his or her new job.\r\n<strong>The leak of a trade secret can result in a significant decrease in the competitive capacity of a company. Moreover, the correct maintenance of these secrets confers to its holder an increased market value.<\/strong>\r\nOur experience in the sector includes the following services:\r\n\r\n    Preparation of confidentiality agreements \r\n    Consultations on measures designed to protect confidential information and secrets \r\n    Investigations into any undue disclosure of confidential information \r\n    Execution of legal measures to curb such violations. \r\n\r\n\u00a0","link":"https:\/\/ids.org.br\/en\/library\/category\/trade-secrets\/","name":"Trade Secrets","slug":"trade-secrets","taxonomy":"category","parent":0,"meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ids.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ids.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ids.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taxonomies\/category"}],"wp:post_type":[{"href":"https:\/\/ids.org.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts?categories=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}