When starting a business, there are few assets more precious than your intellectual property (IP). Your IP may include your inventions, patents, copyrights, original processes and formulas, customer lists, or proprietary information; trade secrets that are often the backbone of your business’s competitive advantage. When these assets are not adequately protected, they stand the risk of being misappropriated or stolen, which could impact the viability of your future business.
At Strategy Law LLP, our startup lawyers, technology lawyers, and litigation lawyers partner with entrepreneurs throughout San Jose and Silicon Valley to protect your intellectual property from day one.
What Are Trade Secrets?
Trade secrets are types of intellectual property that derive their value from not being publicly known. Common examples include:
- Proprietary formulas, algorithms or recipes
- Customer, donor and partner databases and information
- Business strategies, plans, sales and pricing models
- Unique manufacturing or software processes
Unlike patents, trade secrets don’t require formal registration to be protected. However, businesses must take active steps to safeguard them. Without those efforts, a company risks losing both the secrecy itself and the right to enforce legal protection if the information is misused.
Why Confidentiality Matters for Startups
As part of your relationships, employees, contractors, and investors may have access to sensitive company information. If there are inadequate protections, there is the risk of misappropriation. Strong confidentiality protections help safeguard your competitive advantage, and mitigate risk of costly disputes.
Legal Tools to Protect Trade Secrets
1. Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)
NDAs are legal contracts requiring all persons with access to confidential information to maintain confidentiality obligations.
2. Employment Contracts
Our employment attorneys help startups develop employment agreements with confidentiality provisions, IP ownership clauses, non-solicitation and non-compete provisions, where allowed.
3. Internal Policies
Having clear internal policies on the handling of confidential material, sensitive material storage, and limited access to proprietary information will strengthen your trade secret protections.
4. Litigation Options
If misappropriation occurs, our litigation attorneys can help you enforce your legal rights by filing a lawsuit, whether we are seeking an injunction or damages under state and federal laws.
Why Work with Strategy Law?
- Startup Lawyers: We assist founders and business owners in identifying and securing significant IP assets when they form their entity, whether an LLC or a corporation .
- Employment Lawyers: We assist in drafting employee and contractor agreements that comply with California law and protect your company’s confidential and trade secret information.
- Litigation Attorneys: We are prepared to enforce your rights if one of your trade secrets is at risk, misappropriated or misused.
Protect Your Startup’s Future
When you start a business, there are many components that need to be managed, but failing to protect trade secrets could create long-term risk. At Strategy Law, we develop holistic legal strategies for entrepreneurs to protect their intellectual property, draft enforceable agreements and contracts, and litigate and resolve disputes.
Call us today to consult our experienced startup, technology, and litigation attorneys about protecting your business’s greatest asset.
This blog is written as of September 2025. Recommendations and legal requirements are changing rapidly, so please continue to review our legal updates or review postings on relevant government websites.
All blogs on this site are for educational purposes only, do not constitute legal advice or opinion, and should not be applied to your situation, or any specific situation, without consultation with counsel. Strategy Law, LLP does not provide any legal advice concerning any matter discussed in a blog except upon formal engagement including, without limitation, execution of Strategy Law, LLP’s formal legal services agreement, and with respect to specific factual situations. No blog constitutes a guaranty, warranty, or prediction regarding the result of any legal matter discussed in the blog or any representation
