A TRADE SECRET PROTECTION PROGRAM

Perhaps the most important and first step for any company is to establish a trade secret security program. Trade secret rights can be lost if a company fails to take reasonable measures to maintain the information's secrecy. If your company has trade secret information, the law requires you to take active measures to protect the information's confidentiality. Strict procedures in a few areas are not as important as an overall security plan.

A PATENT PROTECTION PROGRAM

Many times, a company does not know the importance of its discovery until it is too late. The off-hand comment made at a trade show by an employee about the company's latest innovation may prove to be enough of a disclosure to destroy patent rights. Therefore, establish a system in your company for handling your employees' ideas and inventions.

A TRADEMARK PROTECTION PROGRAM

Even if your company does not deal with inventions, it probably has a few names or slogans it would like to protect. Your company needs an organized system to search the availability of new names for products and services, to protect these names, and to make sure the names are not infringing any other trademarks.

A COPYRIGHT PROTECTION PROGRAM

Any document, advertisement, software program or brochure you prepare, which has a minimal amount of creativity, is protectable by copyright. If you do not want others to use it without your permission, you do want to learn more about copyright protection. What about reproducing and displaying the copyrighted works of others? For example, an employee may want to make copies of a journal article to use in a seminar or presentation. Or, your company may want to rent a videotape and show it to employees in your auditorium. How about playing music from a local radio station over the intercom system? There are no easy answers here; it depends heavily on the particular situation.