Indiana

For a business, consider putting the need to protect your trade secrets near the top of your worry list.

Just ask Bank of America about the importance of trade secrets. It recently suffered a painful lesson from its neglect.

A trade secret is information that has value because it has been kept confidential. For businesses, classic examples of potential trade secrets are customer lists and future business plans.

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One argument Bank of America made in favor of confidentiality was that information regarding what Merrill and it pay their employees, including bonuses, is trade-secret property.

The court shredded Bank of America's contention. Key officials from Merrill and Bank of America testified they didn't know of any company policy prohibiting disclosure of compensation information.

Bank of America had circulated a message to employees asking them to keep their compensation confidential but never enforced the policy. It never had employees sign an agreement to keep the information confidential.