From the Conference Room to the Chat Room

In discovery (the part of the case where parties request and obtain relevant documents from the other side), I requested and obtained printouts of the employee's Facebook posts. What we found was shocking. For months, this employee used Facebook to disclose the company's trade secrets—bragging about the company's new inventions. This public disclosure of the company's confidential information had serious implications for the company—trade secrets must be kept confidential; otherwise, they are no longer trade secrets and can be scooped up by competitors.