Protecting Innovation: Your Trade Secrets 2023 | Angel Capital Association | 12 November 2023 | Webinar

According to Ocean Tomo, intangible assets now comprise 90% of the value of S&P 500 companies. Of those, many of them are protected by various Intellectual Property (IP) rights but are not currently insured. Trade secrets are the often overlooked “fourth” category of intellectual property, the only type of IP that is not registered and officially approved as yours, even though the digital economy is driven by trade secrets, more so than any other type of IP. This event can come in many forms and provide your company its key competitive advantage, driven largely by its secrecy.

Today, trade secret litigation is often unsuccessful because the vast majority of companies do not have a formal Trade Secret Asset Risk Management (TSARM) process. Most companies tend to focus almost solely on those assets that are earmarked for a future patent (or other IP) protection, though a company’s TSAs can be far more valuable that its patents. This is demonstrated by dramatic increases in both frequency and severity of verdicts in trade secret cases over the past seven years, since the passage of the Defend Trade Secrets Act. Several cases in the past three years have exceeded $1 Billion, and these are the ones we know about!

Regulatory and legislative changes also make trade secret risk management more urgent. The FTC’s proposed ban of non-competes makes trade secrets more vulnerable to theft by former employees, and increasing pressure by the SEC to disclose details of any security breach could mean that public companies will have to notify investors of theft of trade secrets if done as part of a cyber breach. During the session we will discuss practical risk management strategies to protect these valuable assets.

Webinar learning outcomes will be:

• The definition of a trade secret and how they are different or work with other types of IP, particularly patents
• Trade secret regulatory, and legislative environment.
• Best practices around risk management of trade secret assets
• The benefits of identifying, protecting and insuring trade secrets

2023 Speaker

Mary Guzman
Crown Jewel Insurance