When Trade Secrets Walk Out the Door: Protecting Your Business During Employee Departures

By Eugene Bondar, Esq.

Most trade secret cases don’t involve hackers. They involve a trusted employee, a resignation, and a forwarding of files “to finish some things up” — two weeks before they surface at a competitor with your customer list and your pricing model.

Protection starts long before anyone resigns

Courts protect information only if you protected it. That means reasonable secrecy measures: confidentiality agreements that actually describe what’s confidential, access limited to who needs it, and offboarding that retrieves devices and cuts credentials on day one — not at the end of the transition month. The strongest evidence in these cases is usually mundane: access logs, agreement signatures, and a paper trail showing the information was treated as secret.

The two-week window

When a key employee gives notice, act on a checklist, not on trust or on anger: preserve their device images before reassigning hardware, review recent downloads and email forwarding, remind them in writing of their obligations, and conduct an exit interview that confirms return of all materials. If something has already left, those preserved logs are the case.

If you’re on the other side

Hired someone whose former employer is rattling the saber — or received the cease-and-desist yourself? Restrictive covenant law in New York and New Jersey is shifting quickly, and overbroad agreements are increasingly unenforceable. Don’t assume the letter is right; get it read.

Speed matters enormously in trade secret matters — injunctions go to parties who acted like the information mattered. If you’re seeing the warning signs on either side, contact us today. The consultation is free.

Related services: Civil Litigation & Disputes · Business & Commercial Contracts

Attorney Advertising. This post is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.