When hiring an independent contractor, having an Independent Contractor Agreement is important. California has very stringent labor laws. First, it is important that you are correctly classifying someone as an Independent Contractor. Incorrectly classifying employees as independent contractors could subject the employer to liability under the Unfair Competition Law. Who creates the agreement? If you [..]
When an employee is departing from your company, it is important to follow certain procedures in order to protect your business’s interests. Below are a few guidelines to consider: Review the employee’s file and inform the employee of any obligations that continue beyond his or her termination of employment. For example, a non-disclosure agreement that [..]
One of the most important ways you can protect your trade secrets is to have your employees sign confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements. It is important to make it clear to your employees what their obligations are with respect to protecting the company’s trade secrets and confidential information. You should confer with a local business attorney [..]
If your company wants to protect its trade secrets, it is essential to properly document them in either paper or electronic form. This process is important because it can provide evidence that your business viewed and treated the information as secrets. Documentation shows you identified your trade secrets and treated them as proprietary and secret [..]
Most business owners are aware that it is important to protect their company’s trade secrets, but they aren’t sure what trade secrets they actually have that need protection. Below are examples of items that could be trade secrets: Engineering information, methods or processes Computer programs Financial information Customer or vendor lists Budgets and methods used [..]
Most people associate the theft of trade secrets with large companies. However, all businesses are potential targets, regardless of their size. Trade secrets can include scientific processes, specialized recipes, formulas, customer lists, pricing methods, and any other form of valuable proprietary information that is not generally known to the public. Below are a few steps [..]
Trade secrets can include a wide variety of types of information, but in short, they are anything that is valuable because it is a secret. It is essential that a business protect trade secrets by taking reasonable steps to keep the proprietary information a secret and not made public. There are differing degrees of what [..]
Every contract should be drafted to fit the specific agreement made between the parties, but most contracts contain certain “boilerplate” or basic contract provisions. A boilerplate clause typically follows a standard format and they contain carefully drafted language to ensure the provision will be upheld by the court. It is common for parties to skip [..]
