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Minimizing Employee IP Risk Toolkit
Practical Law Toolkit w-010-0756 (Approx. 9 pages)
Minimizing Employee IP Risk Toolkit
by Practical Law Intellectual Property & Technology
| Maintained • USA (National/Federal) |
Resources to assist counsel in addressing issues relating to minimizing a company's employee intellectual property (IP) risk. This Toolkit provides links to employee agreements, policies, and training materials that protect the company's IP, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
A company's intellectual property (IP) is one of its most valuable business assets. The main IP rights under US law are patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. IP rights can create significant value for a company, including by:
- Building brand awareness and loyalty among consumers.
- Establishing protectable legal interests in the goods and services sold by the company and the technology and know-how used to produce them.
- Creating commercial value that may be sold, licensed, or leveraged for profit.
- Giving the company a competitive edge.
Companies with any significant protectable IP should ensure that they protect these valuable assets to the fullest extent of the law, which can vary by state, by requiring employees and independent contractors to:
- Enter into express written agreements governing:
- the ownership of employees' or independent contractors' work product;
- the confidentiality of trade secrets and protection of proprietary rights; and
- non-competition by employees to protect trade secrets, proprietary information, and goodwill.
- Comply with policies that protect the company's IP (see Policies that Protect the Company's IP).
- Attend training about the importance of the company's IP and how to protect it (see Employee Training Materials).
The Minimizing Employee IP Risk Toolkit includes various maintained resources to assist counsel in addressing these and other issues relating to employee IP risk mitigation.