Learn the needed strategy for protecting your trade secrets and other intellectual properties.

1. HRH. JOHN BABATUNDE LEE

2. Are you concerned about company’s confidential information leaking and want to
prevent it? If YES, here are ways to protect business documents.
The world is a global village and the internet has made it easier to run our
businesses but one of the downsides of the internet is that it has made it easier for
business information to be compromised and data stolen. It has now become very
important for business owners to take pro- active steps to prevent their business
information from being compromised and trade secrets from being stolen. Let’s
take a look at some of the ways business information gets compromised-:
3 Ways Business Information Gets Compromised or Stolen
• Employee switching jobs-: When an employee works for you for a while, he
learns a lot about your business and probably learns some trade secrets that you
use to enhance the success of your business. Now, if the employee decides to
leave your company to work for a competitor, he may reveal some of these trade
secrets to your competitors. An employee may also leave your company to start a
similar business becoming your competitor and using some of your trade secrets
to boost his business.
• Investors and Partners-: In the process of seeking for funds for your
business, you would be asked to present a business plan which would be used to
evaluate the viability of the business. This business plan may contain some unique
business ideas and strategies that can be stolen by the investors especially if the
deal doesn’t work out eventually.
• Hacking-: Your business information could also get into unwanted hands
through internet hackers.
So, how do you protect your confidential business information and documents
from getting into unwanted hands?
CORPORATE WAYS TO PROTECT TRADE SECRETS
1. Analyze your business information to determine which ones should be
protected from getting into unwanted hands.

3. If you have some information which you consider as trade secrets, you would
have to carefully analyze them. Trade secrets are usually defined as information
or ideas that are unique with which a business uses to gain an edge over its
competitors.
2. Come up with a data protection policy which you would communicate
to your employees to help them understand the kinds of information
which must be kept secret and also help them understand their
responsibilities for keeping such information.
You should also organize regular meetings and trainings to remind your
employees of the need to protect company information.
3. Create storage areas for confidential documents. This area should be highly
secured and monitored with cameras and unauthorized access should be strongly
prevented.
4. Document disposal process-: The way unwanted documents are disposed of is
also very important. Documents can get into unauthorized hands if they are not
disposed of properly. So, it is important that you purchase a paper shredder for
destroying unwanted documents or engage paper shredding contractors to do it
on your behalf.
5. Ensure that all confidential information is properly labeled and it is stated
that the document may not be copied or used without authorization.
6. When you are hiring employees to work for you, you should ensure that they
sign agreements as part of the conditions of employment. Some of the
documents you should ask them to sign include-:
• Non-compete clause-: This is an agreement signed by the employee stating
that he/she would not engage in a similar business in competition against the
employer.
• Non-Solicitation-: This is another agreement you should ask your employee
to sign stating that he/she would not solicit for customers, business opportunities
or employees either directly or indirectly from your company.

4. 7. Include confidentiality agreements in contract documents-: Business
information is not only leaked through employees. Sometimes they can be leaked
through contractors, consultants and service providers. For instance, a bank’s
private information may be compromised through its I.T consultants. Therefore,
all business owners should make it a point of duty to include confidentiality
agreements in its contract documents with any service providers.
8. Business owners should also try as much as possible to reduce the number of
people that have access to confidential documents.
9. When an employee is leaving your company, you should remember to ask
them to return all documents and properties of the business in their possession
and also remind them of the need to, and the consequences of not sticking to
their confidentiality agreements.
If you still have concerns that such an employee may reveal business secrets to
the new company he has been employed to work for, you may send an official
letter to the company informing them of the non-disclosure and confidentiality
agreement which the employee signed with your company.
10. Protect your e-documents-: If you make use of the internet a lot in your
business, it is important that you protect your documents. You could talk to an IT
consultant about ways through which you can protect your data on the internet.
11. Monitor your visitors-: Ensure that the visitor’s area in your business premises
is separated from the working area and that visitors are closely monitored to
avoid unauthorized access to restricted areas.
12. When an employee leaves your company, ensure that you change all
passwords and security codes known to the employee.
5 Steps to Take When your Business Information Becomes Compromised?
a. First you should find out how and why it happened. How was the information
leaked? Is it as a result of a weakness in your system? It is important for you to
first identify the channel of leakage so as to help you proffer a solution.

5. b. Seek legal assistance if necessary-: If you find out that information was leaked
as a result of a breach in contract, then you may have to involve your lawyer so
that the responsible party can be sued and made to pay for damages. Also, if you
feel that the information that was leaked may be dangerous for your business or
customers then you would need legal backing to protect you.
c. Inform your employees and all affected parties about the incident.
d. Take proactive steps to reduce the damages. In the case of a website that was
hacked, you may have to shut down completely for a while so that it can be
cleaned up.
e. You should also take steps to prevent future occurrences.