Trade secret litigation is industrial espionage!

Litigation is one of the most cost-effective tools of industrial espionage ever developed.

Beware of litigation which may make a Company trade secret or a proprietary process subject to disclosure and discovery; particularly if the litigation involves a competitor or a company in its supply chain.

One does not need to be a competitive Bridge player to understand the old maxim, “One look is worth a thousand finesses!”

Discovery during litigation provides business intelligence for competitors

The liberal construction which most courts seem to apply to disputes arising under the Federal Rules encouraging discovery “in search of admissible evidence” aggravated by the general reluctance of most lawyers to tell a witness, “Do not answer that question!” during a deposition makes the deposition of a knowledgeable employee an opportunity for the kind of deep and searching interrogation which a law enforcement officer is never permitted to conduct and provides information which would make a potential insider trader ecstatic.
The dilemma of a Company faced with theft of a trade secret or misappropriation of knowledge about a critical element of a proprietary industrial process is that bringing an action in a federal court, particularly against a knowledgeable competitor represented by competent counsel will almost surely lead to disclosure of the trade secret and the proprietary aspects of the industrial process as necessary elements of the litigation.

An alternative to direct legal action in damages for the theft of trade secrets or misappropriation of proprietary information must be found.

There are such alternatives, but very few lawyers and their law firms seem to have found them. Finding such alternatives requires a highly skilled and experienced barrister to craft the lawsuit so that the perpetrator cannot benefit from their theft or misappropriation, but that the actual trade secret or information about the proprietary process never becomes part of the litigation subject to discovery and disclosure.