{"id":9484,"date":"2026-01-12T03:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T03:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/ndas-may-provide-notice-to-employees-that-covered-information-is-a-trade-secret\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T03:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T03:10:11","slug":"ndas-may-provide-notice-to-employees-that-covered-information-is-a-trade-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/ndas-may-provide-notice-to-employees-that-covered-information-is-a-trade-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"NDAs May Provide Notice to Employees that Covered Information Is a Trade Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On June 18, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado wrote, in an opinion granting a motion for a preliminary injunction, that \u201c[t]he existence of a non-disclosure agreement puts the employee on notice that information such as customer data is considered a trade secret.\u201d This decision clarifies that, in Colorado, the inclusion of a confidentiality provision in an employment agreement provides notice to an employee that the covered information is a trade secret, supporting the conclusion that an employer can take reasonable measures to preserve the confidentiality of its trade secrets by identifying them as such.<\/p>\n

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In Edwards Lifesciences LLC<\/em> v. Thompson<\/em>, employer plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction to enforce a non-compete agreement against their former employee, Michael Thompson, after he began working for a new employer in a role supporting a competing product line. At the time Thompson signed his non-compete clause in 2022, the operative Colorado law stated that \u201cany covenant not to compete which restricts the right of any person to receive compensation . . . [is] void,\u201d with limited exceptions, including \u201c[a]ny contract for the protection of trade secrets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court held that the restrictive covenants at issue were enforceable under the trade secret exception and granted the employer\u2019s motion for a preliminary injunction. The court found that the non-compete clause was drafted with the purpose of protecting trade secrets, and doing so relied on the employee\u2019s signed Employment Agreement, which defined \u201cConfidential Information\u201d to include \u201ctrade secrets,\u201d \u201cvendor and customer data,\u201d \u201ccustomer patient, supplier, and competitor information,\u201d and \u201csales, pricing, cost, and financial data.\u201d The court rejected arguments that the non-compete provision was separate from the confidentiality provisions, noting that the relevant sections of the Employment Agreement all fell under \u201ca whole section, with subsections, dedicated to describing the various proprietary information that [employer plaintiffs] sought to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court also found that \u201c[t]he existence of a non-disclosure agreement puts the employee on notice that information such as customer data is considered a trade secret,\u201d and that Thompson \u201cwas put on notice that [his employer ] considered its customer data a trade secret and was attempting to protect it.\u201d The Second Circuit and the Northern District of Illinois have previously held the same. See, e.g., Integrated Cash Mgmt. Servs., Inc.<\/em> v. Digit. Transactions, Inc.<\/em>, 732 F. Supp. 370, 377 (S.D.N.Y. 1989), aff\u2019d<\/em>, 920 F.2d 171 (2d Cir. 1990) (\u201cThe existence of a nondisclosure agreement puts the employee on notice that the programs are considered trade secrets.\u201d); ISC-Bunker Ramo Corp.<\/em> v. Altech, Inc.<\/em>, 765 F. Supp. 1310, 1334 (N.D. Ill. 1990) (same).<\/p>\n

The District of Colorado\u2019s decision clarifies that the existence of a non-compete clause in an employment contract referencing confidential information may be enough to provide notice to an employee that the covered information constitutes a trade secret, so long as the party can point to evidence of actual or threatened misappropriation of the trade secret by the employee.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 18, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado wrote, in an opinion granting a motion for a preliminary injunction, that \u201c[t]he existence of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7300,676,2206,7299,877,2896,2009,2234],"class_list":["post-9484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-covered","tag-employees","tag-information","tag-ndas","tag-notice","tag-provide","tag-secret","tag-trade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}