Phoenix Trade Secret and Unfair Competition Lawyers Enforce Commercial Rights in Arizona

Arizona firm protects businesses from unlawful actions of competitors

If you run a successful business, you probably rely on a number of competitive advantages that you earned by dint of your hard work, such as trade secrets, trademarks and goodwill. Unfortunately, some businesses do not compete fairly and will illegally seek to deprive you of those advantages. If that happens, you can count on the Law Offices of Donald W. Hudspeth P.C. in Phoenix to stand in your corner and assert your rights.

What is unfair competition?

Unfair competition is covers a range of unlawful practices by which one business  harms another. These include:

• Deceptive trade practices — False advertising of goods or services and other misrepresentations can lead to legal liability.
• Trademark infringement — A trademark is a name, phrase, logo or other means of identifying your business. It may be infringed if another business steals your trademark or causes confusion by using something very close.
• Misappropriation of trade secrets — Trade secrets are any confidential information developed by a business for its exclusive use. Misappropriation occurs when another business improperly acquires and uses the trade secrets.
• Trade libel — This occurs when one business falsely disparages another business.
• Violation of restrictive covenants — A restrictive covenant is an agreement between a company and some or all of its employees that restricts the employees’ ability to compete against the company after they leave it.

We work to protect our clients from all forms of unfair competition.

How we can help you protect your trade secrets

Trade secrets can take many forms: customer lists, computer codes, formulas, recipes, work methods, inventions, research and development information and other types of proprietary information. We can help you make them less vulnerable to misappropriation. For instance, we can negotiate and prepare employment and separation agreements that include nondisclosure provisions. These prohibit the employees from disclosing confidential information during or after their employment with your company. We can do the same with suppliers, customers, collaborators and others with whom you must share any trade secrets.

What we can do to stop those who try to misappropriate your trade secrets

Regardless of what measures we take to protect your trade secrets in the first instance, nothing can fully protect you from bad actors who violate their contractual obligations or illegally uncover your secrets. And sometimes, your company may be wrongly accused of misappropriating someone else’s trade secrets. We can help our clients avert serious problems in several ways, such as:

• Advising you on how to respond to government requests for trade secrets and proprietary information
• Developing a strategy for protecting your portfolio of trade secrets against other forms of unwanted disclosure
• Sending cease-and-desist letters to violators
• Seeking to resolve claims of trade secret infringement through negotiation or other methods short of litigation, whether you are the victim or the accused

If we do need to go to court to protect your trade secrets, or they become relevant to other litigation in which you are involved, we can ask the court for an order to protect them from disclosure. Potential remedies for misappropriation of trade secrets include:

• A court order enjoining their illegal use and requiring the infringer to return the stolen trade secrets
• Damages to your business caused by the misappropriation

In the process, we will use all of the litigation tools at our disposal to build a case for trade secrets infringement or a defense to that claim.

Contact a dedicated Phoenix unfair competition and trade secrets law firm

Law Offices of Donald W. Hudspeth P.C. handles issues involving trade secret misappropriation and other forms of unfair competition in Arizona. To schedule a consultation, call our Phoenix office today at 866-696-2033 or contact us online.