During employment, employees owe certain obligations not to use or disclose trade secrets. However, it is not legally clear that this duty applies to lesser types of confidential information.
After employment ends, employees are not automatically forbidden from using or disclosing trade secrets or confidential information.
It is always recommended that employers put in place clear employment contract clauses clarifying that employees must not use or disclose trade secrets or other types of confidential information. The clauses should also state that this obligation continues even after employment ends and specify the information that is regarded by the employer as confidential.
However, confidential information breaches can be hard to police so also consider reducing the opportunity for misuse by restricting employees’ activities after employment using post-employment restrictions. See our Quick Guide for more information about using post-employment restrictions to protect confidential information.
Trade secrets include valuable and potentially confidential material which employees can be restrained from using, even after they leave their employer. The disclosure or use of a trade secret (if it is confidential information) is illegal. New Regulations came into force in June 2018. They state that revealing or using a trade secret is unlawful where it constitutes a breach of confidence in confidential information.
The Regulations also build upon the existing concept of 'trade secrets' by adding new requirements, eg reasonable steps must have been taken to keep the information secret and such information has commercial value because it is secret. What is reasonable is typically for the courts to decide.
For more information on protecting trade secrets in the workplace, you can Ask a lawyer.
Practical steps to protect information not only reduce risk but improve your prospects of enforcing protective clauses in court, if necessary.
You should clearly label confidential information as such; restrict access to confidential information and circulate only as needed; secure physical and electronic documents by using locked cabinets, offices, password protection and encryption. When dealing with third parties, consider using a Non-disclosure agreement which can act one way or both ways. You can also use a Letter of confidentiality.
Stop employees from storing contacts and any business information on external sites such as LinkedIn, as this makes information harder to protect.
Don’t breach an employee’s employment contract (eg by making a PILON without the contractual right to do so), as this can remove your right to enforce the contract.
Act fast if you discover an ex-employee has breached confidential information restrictions (or other post-employment restrictions), as delaying may mean you lose the right to an 'injunction', which is a court order preventing further breaches.