Spring 2013 Employment Law Seminar

Spring Employment Law Seminar

MISSION POSSIBLE: Protecting Your Company’s Top Secrets and Other Crown Jewels

What is the “stuff” that makes your company money? The greatest assets for most businesses are their (1) employees and (2) proprietary tools. Those tools may include a recipe for cupcakes, source code for a software application, a marketing strategy, a list of top 10 customers by revenue, a well-known brand name, a logo for a beer, a catchy slogan, and so on. Let’s call them “money-makers.”

What access do your employees have to your money-makers? Trade secrets are extremely vulnerable to theft and loss by employees who have regular access to the company’s crown jewels. And today’s user-friendly technologies (smartphones, flash drives, cloud computing, Facebook, Twitter) make it even more difficult for a company to protect those jewels. For example, when employees leave your company, do you know where they are going, and what they might be taking with them? Are they starting a competing business? Are they joining a competitor? You may not know until it is too late – which is why it is important to have a plan in place to protect what is yours.

A company’s money-makers may also include intellectual property — trademarks, patentable inventions, and copyrighted works — which are not kept secret from the public, but nevertheless can be diluted, infringed, or compromised by employees and others. Unfortunately, these issues are often overlooked by companies until it is too late.

We will illuminate. Our knowledgeable attorneys will explain the differences between trade secrets, trademarks, patents and copyrights, and discuss steps you can take to protect your most valuable proprietary assets from employees, independent contractors, business partners, and other companies. Through this engaging and entertaining seminar, we will provide you with an understanding of:

• What constitutes a trade secret, a copyrighted work, a patentable invention, and a trademark
• How to identify your company’s proprietary assets
• Various ways in which your company’s crown jewels can be stolen or diluted
• Security and legal measures for protecting your assets Employee obligations, independent contractor agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and other recommended documentation

Who Should Attend:
Business owners and managers, CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, COOs, in-house legal counsel, human resource professionals, marketing managers, and IT managers.

Registration Details:

• Please note there are two dates, May 21 (in Pleasanton) and May 22 (in San Jose.
• Registration fee is $35 for non-Hoge Fenton clients, and includes program materials and a continental breakfast.
• If you are a client, please contact Patty Blanquies, pvb@hogefenton.com or 408.947.2487, to register at no charge.
• Registration includes program materials and 2.5 hours of MCLE/CPE. This program has been approved for 2.5 (General) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

For more information about the firm’s Employment Law practice, please click here.

For more information about the firm’s Intellectual Property practice, please click here.

For more information about the firm’s Privacy & Data Security practice, please click here.