Trade Secrets: Departing Employees

Thanks to Trade Secrets Blog for writing on When employees can't keep a secret from the Canadian Financial Post in their article "Take Off, Hoser - But Leave the Beer Secrets Here". A points from the original article:

Sleeman Breweries Ltd., Mattel Canada Inc. and First Financial Underwriting Services Inc. don't have much in common in the products they sell. But the trio shares at least one big and growing worry -- losing trade secrets to a rival.

All three are suing former executives over allegations the one-time employees walked out the door with confidential data, just as they started working for a direct competitor.

As employees move from one company to another and competition for market share gets stiffer, 'secret' details, such as sales and customer information, are increasingly viewed as crucial to keeping an edge on the rest of the pack.

I believe we are seeing more trade secret cases because competition has been more fierce. The following boosts my opinion:

"If you had invested all that time, money and resources trying to build your business and somebody leaves with all your secrets, you¹d be pissed off," said Gerard Seijts, an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business. "Let's not pretend that business is a friendly game.

"I think these [lawsuits] will happen more because everything is getting so intense in terms of competition."