Topics included when to seek patent protection or trade secret protection, the availability of insurance and trade secret registration, and trade secret damages. I was unaware that at one point the insurance industry did offer insurance for patent and trade secrets, but apparently after the Alice decision the insurance industry took a massive hit, and stopped largely ceased issuing insurance as a result. Now, Aon and Cozen are working to create a blockchain driven trade secret registration database. By registering the trade secret Aon will offer insurance on the trade secret.
My only concern is whether or not Aon and Cozen will make some kind of pre-determination of the “worthiness” of the trade secret. Could a denial on their part be used as evidence that the “trade secret” is not in fact a trade secret? How do they determine the insurance premium and how would the measure of damages be calculated, as trade secret damages can vary wildly.
Just food for thought, but an interesting concept that owners of valuable trade secrets should be aware of.
Ryan Strom did a great job presenting the article that was asked to write titled “Modern trends in trade secret valuation under the UTSA and DTSA”. Unfortunately for him, I included roughly 30 slides and he only had 15 minutes to present, so next time I’ll do a better job of reducing the number of slides. Sorry Ryan!
