Experienced New Jersey & Pennsylvania Commercial Law Lawyers Protect Your Trade Secrets

Maintaining certain trade secrets can be essential to the success of many businesses. Although the economy thrives on competition, unfair competition can be devastating to the economy because it punishes innovation and makes it too easy for free riders to benefit from the fruits of someone else’s labor. Trade secret law is often needed when copyright law, trademark law, and patent law fail to provide adequate solutions to protecting a business’ secret formulas, practices, or designs.

In fact, oftentimes, trade secret law is the only thing that allows a business to prosper. If a successful business is unable to prevent competitors from gaining access to its secrets, the business may struggle and even collapse. That’s why you need an experienced commercial litigator to ensure that your trade secrets remain private for your company’s use only.

The commercial litigators at Cohen & Riechelson have experience enforcing restrictive covenants to protect against trade secret infringement. We’ve successfully handled countless trade secret cases throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

What Constitutes a “Trade Secret” in New Jersey?

A trade secret is a valuable formula, practice, plan, design, technique, or process that provides a business with an economic advantage. Trade secrets, which must be unknown to the public and/or people outside the business, can also include inventions, software, client lists, marketing research, and recipes. A well-known example of a trade secret is the Coca-Cola formula. Like the Coca-Cola Company, you own your business’ proprietary information.

Although copyright law and patent law may be used to prevent certain trade secrets from being used by competitors, these areas of law are often inadequate to fully protect business owners. For example, patent law requires that the patent be disclosed to the public. Once this happens, the company’s secret formula or design is no longer considered a “trade secret.” Additionally, a patent can potentially be reverse-engineered by competitors to figure out the secret formula or process; by contrast, a trade secret is fully protected against reverse engineering. Put simply, trade secret law affords far stronger protections to a business’ trade secrets than any other area of law.

New Jersey’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act protects businesses against the theft or misappropriation of trade secrets. If a competing company knows that the trade secret was acquired through illicit means, the company may be liable under the statute. This means a court can issue an injunction to stop the company from using the trade secret, or a court may require the company to pay damages for the trade secret theft.

If your employees, managers, directors, or agents have signed non-disclosure agreements, the law should protect your trade secrets. When an individual violates the terms of a non-disclosure agreement, fast and effective enforcement of the agreement is essential to ensuring that your business’ secrets are not revealed. If the damage has already been done, you may have a claim for financial compensation.

Knowledgeable NJ & PA Commercial Law Attorneys File Unfair Competition Lawsuits and Protect Your Trade Secrets

You worked hard to develop your business and to gain an edge in the marketplace. It’s not fair that your proprietary business information could be disclosed or revealed to competitors who wish to steal your hard work. If someone has violated a non-disclosure agreement and is revealing your trade secret to a competitor, it is crucial that you speak with a knowledgeable trade secret attorney immediately.

Contact our conveniently located offices in New Jersey & Pennsylvania

The experienced commercial law attorneys at Cohen & Riechelson can protect you against trade secret theft, trade secret misappropriation, intellectual property infringement, and counterfeiting. You can call at (609) 528-2596, or simply fill out our online contact form to schedule a free consultation with one of our experienced commercial litigators.