A trade secret owner can enforce his/her rights in two main ways: (i) injunctive relief and (ii) damages (e.g. monetary reimbursement). An injunction is a court order that stops or compels another to do or not do something. For example, if Coca-Cola found out that Bob stole its Coca-Cola recipe it could immediately file an injunction with the court to stop Bob from giving the information away to others. Coca-Cola would also likely sue Bob for a large amount of damages – i.e. monetary relief – that Coca-Cola lost due to Bob’s actions. In other words, Coca-Cola could argue that it lost business because of all of the consumers who now drink Pepsi instead of Coca-Cola due to Bob’s misappropriation of its recipe. Coca-Cola might also be able to recover through other causes of action including unjust enrichment and perhaps get attorney’s fees.

Finally, we’ll wrap up this article with some main considerations.