This article explains how tech start-ups can secure their trade secrets and protect themselves from the resulting loss of expertise. And unlike the pre-technology days, one of the most coveted trade secrets, the customer list, can be stolen with a few touches of a keyboard. The most effective way to protect trade secrets is for tech companies to use restrictive post-employment covenants that prevent disclosure of valuable company information. The Hawaii legislature has created a statute that protects against the disclosure of trade secrets. 482B as information including formulas, patterns, techniques, processes, etc.
Courts typically protect trade secrets by issuing injunctions and protective orders.
Where a non-competition agreement is in place, trade secret law has been applied to restrict employee behavior where there is actual or threatened trade secret misappropriation. The doctrine of inevitable disclosure extends traditional trade secret misappropriation principles to situations where there has been no actual or threatened misappropriation. In an inevitable disclosure case, a court may issue an injunction to prevent an employee from working for a competitor of his or former employer even where there is neither a non-competition agreement nor any proof of actual or threatened misappropriations. Employers need only demonstrate a real and present danger of disclosure for an injunction to issue. The doctrine of inevitable disclosure is a fairly recent development in trade secret law.