Building a Trade Secret Program That Survives Litigation: A Practitioner's Guide to Reasonable Measures, Onboarding, and Exit
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This is the build manual for a trade secret program, written for the lawyer who has to make one exist and then defend it under oath. It runs fifteen numbered stages from the first inventory workshop through emergency motion practice, and for each stage it gives the actual sequence of moves, the governing rule, a realistic cost and timeline, and the mistake that costs money. It supplies model language for the 18 U.S.C. § 1833(b) whistleblower notice, present-tense invention assignment, vendor confidentiality survival and residuals clauses, the exit certification, and the trade secret identification statement that goes in front of a special master. It carries one company — Halcyon Fluidics, a forty-person Erie pump manufacturer whose regional sales director resigned on a Friday — through every stage, from the inventory it should have built in 2024 to the forensic image it took on the following Monday. It works through the four real forks in the road: whether to hire a candidate under a covenant, whether to demand or sue or stand still, whether to move for a seizure order or a temporary restraining order, and whether to patent the thing or keep it quiet. The doctrine lives in the companion article; this document assumes it and spends its length on execution.
IP and Technology > Trade Secrets | Guide | Published 29 October 2025 - Updated 26 February 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This is the build manual for a trade secret program, written for the lawyer who has to make one exist and then defend it under oath. It runs fifteen numbered stages from the first inventory workshop through emergency motion practice, and for each stage it gives the actual sequence of moves, the governing rule, a realistic cost and timeline, and the mistake that costs money. It supplies model language for the 18 U.S.C. § 1833(b) whistleblower notice, present-tense invention assignment, vendor confidentiality survival and residuals clauses, the exit certification, and the trade secret identification statement that goes in front of a special master. It carries one company — Halcyon Fluidics, a forty-person Erie pump manufacturer whose regional sales director resigned on a Friday — through every stage, from the inventory it should have built in 2024 to the forensic image it took on the following Monday. It works through the four real forks in the road: whether to hire a candidate under a covenant, whether to demand or sue or stand still, whether to move for a seizure order or a temporary restraining order, and whether to patent the thing or keep it quiet. The doctrine lives in the companion article; this document assumes it and spends its length on execution.
Keywords: trade secret program · reasonable measures · trade secret inventory · access controls · confidentiality agreement · invention assignment · dtsa whistleblower notice · 18 u.s.c. 1833(b) · onboarding protocol · exit interview · forensic preservation · litigation hold · trade secret identification · section 2019.210 · protective order · attorneys eyes only · tro and preliminary injunction · ex parte seizure · vendor nda · patent versus trade secret
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