b'But I came up with the formula: Dr. Chemie has worked for Starliability if the folks he is sending the offer to are just those people Adhesives for 25 years. Over that time, he personally developedhe is connected to on LinkedIn and Facebook. Any of the former almost all of Stars chemical formulas for its adhesive products. employees friends and many strangers can look at his contacts, His new girlfriend has convinced him that Star Adhesives is notso they are no secret for Stone. treating him fairly after all of those years and that he should go intoWhat Should I Do:business for himself. They will be rich, she tells him. Dr. Chemie takes the advice and begins selling the adhesive formulas thatG ood: You dont really have to do anything to enjoy the basic he developed while working for Star. Can Star Adhesives stopprotectionspreventingcurrentandformeremployeesfrom Dr. Chemie? After all, the formulas are his. Maybe, Dr. Chemieusing your secrets. The law is designed to look out for you.developed those formulas during work hours and those ideasSimply do your best to maintain your secrets from the publics may belong to Star Adhesives. He created them, but was paid towatchful eye.do so. That said, there is a protection for your innovations. ThisBetter: While the law does offer some protections, there are some would be a close call. easy additional precautions you can take that are worthwhile.Patent-shmatent: Brice Architecture developed a methodologyHaveapolicyinyouremployeehandbookexplainingsome for building suspension bridges that takes less time. Twenty yearsinformation is secret and protected. Many employees will not ago, it patented the procedure and thus enjoyed its protectionshave the first thought about this type of issue until you bring sincethattime.Fiveyearsago,Bricehiredanenterprisingittotheirattention. Aspartofyournewhireconsentsand architect who became dissatisfied with the company and wentacknowledgments, have employees sign off on a confidentiality into business for himself this year. The young architect is usingagreement. Even though it probably just recites the protections Bricespatentedmethod.CanBricestopthearchitectfromyou have, employees are more likely to feel bound by it when using its patented design? No. The patent has expired.Eventhey leave.though Brice claims it is still a secret, any architect who lookedBest: For the most protection available, have employees enter at one of their bridges can easily discern the idea. That was theinto a covenant not to compete and an assignment agreement reason for patenting it. Brice cannot put its former employee inregarding all patents the employee might develop while working any worse situation than any other person off the street whoon the company clock. If you discuss trade secrets while using wants to copy its formerly patented formula. virtualconferencingplatforms,suchasZoomorWebex,be Thats MY customer list: Stone Investments provides investmentsure to password protect meetings and remove any unidentified advice for businesses looking to expand. The company is verylurkers who may find their way in. secretive about its customer relationships and its customers insistStonehavenon-disclosureagreementsforalloftheir dealings. One of Stones employees decides to strike out on his own. The employee was very careful not to take any secret customer lists or other information from the company at the time he left, but is about to blast an email to many of Stones customers. Can he get away with that? It is likely he will have no 70'