Fill and Sign the 04 Form Checklist for a Trade Secret Policy

-1- § 6.04 Form: Checklist for a Trade Secret Policy Trade secrets, although sometimes harder to identify than a company’s copyrights, patents, or trademarks, can be vital to a company’s operations. Any information or idea, including software, that qualifies as a trade secret 1 should be subject to the following policies to ensure that protection is not inadvertently lost: (1) all documents and other material containing confidential trade secret information should contain copyright and proprietary notices; (2) all employees and consultants should execute non-disclosure agreements; (3) a log should be maintained to record each person who receives a copy of or access to the trade secrets, as well as the dates on which the trade secrets were distributed to and returned from that person; (4) all individuals involved in the design or development of intellectual property should maintain all notes and records in bound volumes, which should be periodically dated and which should contain proprietary notices and appropriate stamps on the front cover; (5) all employees and consultants should be interviewed prior to commencing work to determine the extent, if any, to which they are bound by confidentiality obligations that might impact their new obligations and to emphasize the necessity of protecting the company’s trade secrets; (6) all employees and consultants whose employment with or engagement by the company has been terminated for any reason should be given an exit interview and be asked to sign a termination statement confirming that they have returned all materials belonging to the company; (7) before the disclosure or demonstration of any intellectual property to any prospect, licensee, client, or other interested party, that party should be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement; and 1 See § 6.03 supra. -2- (8) all published works in any way relating to the trade secrets of the company should be screened to determine whether trade secret information is being disclosed.