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Trade Secrets & Noncompetition Litigation

For you or your business to be protected, many types of contracts and agreements can be created, but each one must be negotiated and drafted to advance your business strategies, objectives, and corporate culture. These documents often address trade secrets and prevent your key employees from using your business, technical, or other proprietary information to compete with your company.

Having an experienced attorney on your side when dealing with these issues can ensure that your rights and future are preserved and protected.

At Chenoweth Law Group in Portland, we work side by side with clients to establish the right internal policies and procedures and implement the right remedial actions so their trade secrets and noncompete issues are handled efficiently and effectively. We work diligently to find the most cost-effective solutions and resolutions that suit your best interests, needs, and goals for the future. Serving clients in Oregon, Washington, and California, our commercial litigation experience can help protect you and your business.

Protection of Trade Secrets

All businesses have proprietary operations, innovations, and creations that are the critical foundation of the competitive advantage enjoyed by the business. These are often considered trade secrets that are protectable under the law. Consider it this way, if disclosure of your business information, product development, or customer and supplier lists could allow competitors to gain access to your clients or erode your position in the marketplace, you enjoy protectable trade secrets.

Theft of trade secrets by employees or other companies must be supported by a no-tolerance policy and met with aggressive litigation to protect your business and all the hard work that drives its success. Our attorneys handle all types of trade secret matters for individuals and businesses desiring sustained competitive advantage or whose future is threatened by trade secret violations.

Services for Employees

Policies and procedures intended to safeguard trade secrets and any other intellectual property rights are not always written in the clearest language, or they may simply be outdated. Some businesses use claims of misappropriation of trade secrets to cripple a former employee’s new business and burden the law-abiding owner. In your eagerness to take on new employment, you may not have taken the time to read or fully understand what you were signing.

If your employer or former employer has accused you of stealing trade secrets or violating a noncompete agreement, our lawyers can help. And because we have significant experience representing both sides of these disputes, we can anticipate the opposition’s objections and build a stronger case for you.

Noncompetition/Nonsolicitation Agreements

Many employees are asked to sign a noncompetition or nonsolicitation agreement prior to or during their employment. These agreements often seek to prohibit the former employee from working with their former employer’s competitor or starting his or her own competing business. Many details are often written in the “fine print” as the seeds of litigation if the employee is not fully aware of all the terms of the agreement.

Our firm handles the creation of noncompetition and nonsolicitation contracts and the litigation associated with those agreements, as well as:

  • Preparation and enforcement of nondisclosure and assignment of rights agreements
  • Preparation and enforcement of noncompetition agreements among partners, joint ventures, and employees
  • Breach of fiduciary duty by employees, officers, managers, business partners, or representatives
  • Embezzlement and employee dishonesty-related claims

Contact Us Today

We can guide you through all your trade secret and noncompetition litigation and other business law matters. Please call us at 503.446.6261 in Portland or complete our online contact form.

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Chenoweth Law Group