TRADE SECRETS AND THE MOBILE EMPLOYEE
The subject of Trade Secrets is one of tremendously growing importance to the business community. Expanding budgets for research and development, the shortage of skilled personnel, and the sharp competition that exists for experienced technicians, all put a heavy strain on the legal principle which the law is supposed to enforce, namely the employee's duty of loyalty and his obligation not to divulge or use for his own advantage his employer's Trade Secrets. To put it briefly: More and more is being spent by greater numbers of people, having higher and higher skills, to discover a way to do things better and better. The protection of Trade Secrets against breach of confidence on the part of customers, suppliers, licensees, and in similar business relationships where there is a need by the owner to divulge his Trade Secrets, present relatively simple legal problems compared to the complexities which arise with employees. My purpose will be to assess the extent of the danger of loss of Trade Secrets through employees, and to consider the best ways to combat it, or protect against it. A few years ago there were several articles in popular magazines which indicated widespread industrial espionage and stealing of Trade Secrets through employees.1 The Harvard Business School, in a favorable position to take the business pulse on such a sensitive matter, sent questionnaires to a carefully selected cross section of readers of the Harvard Business Review, consisting of about 200 companies. Initial returns showed a widespread belief by businessmen that active industrial espionage was going on and that Trade Secrets were being stolen. The questionnaire was then followed up by personal interviews which indicated the answers to the questionnaires had been largely based on rumors and that there was very little direct knowledge of Trade Secret thefts. Final conclusions were incorporated in an article appearing in the issue for November and December, 1959,2 to the general effect that the danger of industrial espionage was greatly over rated, and that only in rare instances were there actual examples of stolen Trade Secrets.