As a business owner, ensuring that your customer list is adequately protected can often be a challenging task. Employees who have direct access to a customer list can misappropriate that information and use it to compete directly against the business. Fortunately, a business’s customer list may qualify as a trade secret to justify the enforcement…
Continue reading ›During discovery opposing parties request the production of relevant evidence and documents to encourage fair judicial proceedings and case settlements. Although the rules of both state and federal civil procedure are broad enough to encompass most discovery requests, not everything that a party requests is discoverable. There are certain objections and privileges that exist to…
Continue reading ›To have legal recourse for the misappropriation of a trade secret under Florida law, a plaintiff must: (1) prove the existence of a trade secret; (2) prove that it took reasonable measures to protect the trade secret; and (3) demonstrate that the trade secret was misappropriated. See Del Monte Fresh Produce Co. v. Dole Food…
Continue reading ›Florida’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act, Fla. Stat. Sections 688.001-688.009 (the “Act”), prohibits the misappropriation of a business’ trade secrets even if the business does not have a non-disclosure or similar agreement with the disclosing party. Misappropriation generally includes the improper possession of, or the disclosure of, a trade secret: “misappropriation” is fully defined in section…
Continue reading ›A trade secret is a form of intellectual property that is something that is of independent value because it is not generally known. The trade secret must be kept secret and the way it’s protected is in 2 ways: 1) It’s secrecy has to be maintained. For example, the Coca-Cola formula is something that is…
Continue reading ›Peter Mavrick, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer, successfully defended a professional recruiting business for alleged theft of trade secrets. The case was venued in Circuit Court, and followed departure of certain key employees from a company who then started their own business. Before hiring attorney Peter Mavrick, the client corporation tried to show the plaintiff corporation…
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