Here at the Law Office of Vincent Miletti, Esq. and the home of the #UnusuallyMotivated movement, we take pride as a resilient and dependable legal services firm, providing such services in both a traditional and online, web-based environment. With mastered specialization in areas such as Employment and Labor Law, Intellectual Property (IP) (trademark, copyright, patent), Entertainment Law, and e-Commerce (Supply Chain, Distribution, Fulfillment, Standard Legal & Regulatory), we provide a range of legal services including, but not limited to traditional legal representation (litigation, mediation, arbitration, opinion letters, and advisory), non-litigated business legal representation and legal counsel, and unique, online legal services such as smart forms, mobile training, legal marketing, and development.

Still, here at Miletti Law®, we feel obligated to enlighten, educate, and create awareness, free of charge, about how these issues and many others affect our unusually motivated® readers and/or their businesses. Accordingly, to achieve this goal, we have committed ourselves to creating authoritative, trustworthy, & distinctive content. Usually, this content is featured as videos posted on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvUryqkkMAJLwrLu2BBt6w and blogs that are published on our website WWW.MILETTILAW.COM. With that, the ball is in your court and you have an effortless obligation to subscribe to the channel and sign up for the Newsletter on the website, which encompasses the best way to ensure that you stay in the loop and feel the positive impact of the knowledge bombs that we drop here!

As the authoritative force in Employment Law, it only seemed right to introduce one of the many upcoming series in which we introduce a variety of topics that looks to educate and deliver in a manner that only Miletti Law® can. To that end, this blog is Part XI of our ongoing series on “Life Sciences Industry Guide for Labor and Employment,” in which we review the basics and issues of concern to employers engaged within the life sciences industry. In Part X of the series and our blog titled “Trainee, Volunteer, & Intern Concerns within the Life Sciences,” we mentioned that just as they do with independent contractors, employers within the life sciences industry engage in the common practice of using trainees, volunteers, and interns as a way of supplementing the workforce. Accordingly, in order to avoid potential liability for overtime payments and unpaid wages, it is crucial to ensure that these individuals have been appropriately classified.

As a continuation of our discussion, this blog is titled “Trade Secret Protection & Restrictive Covenants in Life Sciences” and is an overview of issues employers within the life sciences industry should consider when dealing with trainees, volunteers, and interns.

Trade Secret Protection & Restrictive Covenants in Life Sciences

The life sciences industry is highly interconnected and, therefore, fosters outsourcing arrangements, joint ventures, and collaborations between facilities and organizations, which, consequently, imply that employees are in constant mobility. Accordingly, these organizations and companies must understand how to defend against trade secret theft claims and take the necessary precautions to protect their confidential information and trade secrets. For instance, this is particularly crucial to employers in fields like testing services, which are characterized by the less common use of patent protection.

The Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA)

Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 1831–1839, trade secret misappropriation victims are permitted by the Defend Trade Secrets Act to bring actions in federal court, provided that trade secret(s) in question is intended for use or are used in interstate commerce. Based on the UTSA (Uniform Trade Secrets Act), which is discussed below, the definitions of “misappropriation” or “trade secret” are not changed under the DTSA. Furthermore, another remedy provided under the DTSA, probably the best case scenario under state law, which is preferable to a preliminary injunction, is civil forfeiture.

Usually, it is understood that a defendant has already exploited a stole trade secret by the time a preliminary injunction is awarded by a court. Notably, by permitting the seizure of the stolen assets by law enforcement, these situations are amicably addressed by the provisions of civil forfeiture under the DTSA. Thus, whenever planning to bring a lawsuit with the aim of recovering a stolen trade secret, it is critical to evaluate and determine whether the DTSA is the best option or not.

The Uniform Trade Secrets Act of 1979 (UTSA)

As mentioned in our past blogs, the majority of U.S. states have adopted and enacted some form of the UTSA. Under this statute, a “trade secret” is defined, pursuant to UTSA § 1(4), as information that includes a process, technique, method, device, program, compilation, pattern, or formula that:

  • Is, under the circumstances, subject to reasonable efforts aimed at maintaining its secrecy-and-
  • Derives potential or actual independent economic value from not being readily ascertainable by proper means by or from not being generally known to other persons who can obtain economic value if it is disclosed and used.

It is crucial to understand that the first element of this definition of most significant. This is because even if the second element of the definition is met, there can be dire consequences if reasonable efforts and measures are not taken in protecting secrecy. In fact, if no such reasonable efforts and measures were taken by the plaintiff to protect the information in question, courts do not hesitate to deny or dismiss the application of preliminary injunctions in claims related to theft or misappropriation of trade secrets.

In Part XII of this series and our blog titled “Protecting & Maintaining Secrecy of Trade Secrets; Best Practices,” we shall move the discussion forward by hammering on some of the best practices for protecting and maintaining the secrecy of trade secrets in the life sciences industry.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more legal guidance, training, and education. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!

Always rising above the bar,

Isaac T.,

Legal Writer & Author.