The Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act is an act that was put into place by the Texas legislature to protect trade secrets. And it defines what a trade secret is, and it gives employers, it gives companies the ability to protect their trade secrets so that they can not be wrongfully misappropriated and utilized against them. There are multiple types of damages that can be recovered if a trade secret has been stolen. If a former employee takes a client list and we look at the amount now that they have collected from what used to be our client, well, those are actual damages that we can recover. If a former employee or former independent contractor takes proprietary information that should be subject to a licensing agreement, then we can look at what a reasonable and customary royalty would be for such a licensing agreement and we can recover those types of damages. Another type of damage that can be recovered is what was invested in developing this trade secret, and so how much then did that save the person that wrongfully misappropriated that trade secret, so the cost of creation is a type of damage that can be recovered. And then also, we can recover punitive or exemplary damages based upon a willful taking of trade secrets and also recover the attorney's fees that were involved. It's always important to ensure that you have the appropriate confidentiality agreement in place, to ensure that you have the appropriate non-solicitation agreement in place, to ensure that you have the appropriate noncompete agreement in place for your specific business.
