It is critical to understand that once the information you wish to protect has been disclosed to the public, nothing can put the genie back in the bottle and make it confidential again. At that point, damages may be your only remedy, and they probably won’t make up for any irreparable harm done to your business. So even if you have proper Confidentiality and Non-disclosure Agreements in place, you still need to take appropriate precautions to protect your secret information.

This means that you should physically secure confidential information and restrict access to it on a need to know basis, limit the number of copies available and the ability to copy or reproduce the information, and stamp “Confidential” on each appropriate document, design, or program. In addition, when employees leave the company or an independent contractor’s contract terminates, they should be required to return or destroy any confidential information.

Finally, it is very important to police and enforce the confidentiality obligations that other persons owe to your company, because the failure to do could mean that the confidential information either gets widely disseminated or otherwise loses its protectable quality. Therefore, if a potential disclosure is discovered, the party should be contacted immediately and advised of their duty to maintain confidentiality. If it is apparent that this will not prevent disclosure, then a court action seeking an injunction may be necessary.

One area where many of the issues regarding intellectual property rights and confidential information will come together is in the development of a website for you business. We will now look at how to go about creating and protecting what has become one of the primary marketing tools of most modern day businesses.