Smart Business Magazine, Mar 2013

March 2013 Smart Business Philadelphia 11 make sure you understand how they go about managing and protecting the intellectual property of the third parties that they in turn do business with as well Regarding the employee confidentiality agreement Ahmad says its unwise and potentially dangerous for a company to regard this process as a one and done deal In other words its insufficient to simply have employees read and sign the agreement and then file it away Companies need to remind employees periodically about their confidentiality agreements and about the importance of keeping the companys sensitive information private Companies sometimes leave themselves vulnerable to trade secret theft loss if they approach these confidentiality agreements like a checklist Ahmad says By that I mean they cant just have the employee read and sign the agreement and then they knock it off their checklist and forget about it The problem with doing this is you can be sure the employee will forget about it too Many times an employee will enter into a confidentiality agreement and then theyll work for the company for 10 or 20 years and theyll forget they even have the agreement As a result they dont really respect the companys trade secrets the way they should Thus its important to periodically remind employees about their confidentiality agreement and even more important to underline that agreements significance when the persons employment with the company ends Thats probably the most critical aspect how the matter is handled at the end of the employment relationship Ahmad says Im often shocked at how many employees I see who have signed confidentiality agreements and at the end of their employment whether they resign or are terminated theyre not even reminded that they have these agreements Many of them dont even know they have them Business executives would be wise to take advantage of the employee exit interview because it represents their companys last chance to underscore the imperative of keeping its trade secrets just that secret At the exit interview employees must be required to sign and confirm that they understand their responsibilities in regard to keeping the companys information confidential Ahmad says By doing that youre drilling in to the employee as theyre leaving the company and presumably going to work for someone else who just may be one of your competitors that Hey listen this is serious We take this matter very seriously How to reach Ahmad Zavitsanos Anaipakos Alavi Mensing www azalaw com The Center for Responsible Enterprise Trade www create org Social media A window to your intellectual property Social media tools provide an accessible and inexpensive way for businesses to expand their market footprint But failure to protect and enforce intellectual property rights may quickly turn a great resource into a major headache whether or not social media is part of a corporate marketing program says Alexis Dillett Isztwan of Semanoff Ormsby Greenberg Torchia LLC Together social media and intellectual property pose internal and external issues Internally a business must monitor and control employee use of intellectual property Given social medias accessibility problems can arise and grow rapidly Imagine an employee prematurely tweeting about a new product launch or information never intended for the public To reduce risk businesses should establish a written social media policy that Sets clear guidelines for appropriate topics to be posted on any media including company and employee personal accounts Identifies personnel permitted to post and the posting approval process Addresses use of third party trademarks or copyrights or names of individuals or competitors Is clearly and regularly communicated and taught through annual training Externally businesses should police unauthorized use of their intellectual property on social media sites Defamatory comments can take on a life of their own Businesses must also contend with trademark misuse or infringement from someone using your trademark as its domain name to assuming your brand identity online an aggressive practice called brand jacking To combat these challenges businesses should Monitor social media for use of company trademarks Obtain formal protection for intellectual property e g trademark registrations Avoid overreaction weigh impact of potential negative backlash online against severity of misuse Consider availing itself of the social media sites enforcement policies Alexis Dillett Isztwan a member at Semanoff Ormsby Greenberg Torchia LLC concentrates on intellectual property and technology law