Former employee sharing trade secrets with competitor - NDA worth anything?

I'm losing my mind over here. Our lead engineer left 3 months ago and just popped up at a direct competitor. Fine, whatever, people move on.

But now I'm hearing from industry contacts that they're using methods that are IDENTICAL to our proprietary process. Like, the exact same approach we spent 18 months developing. There's no way they independently came up with this.

He signed an NDA when he joined us. Is it actually worth anything or are these just pieces of paper that lawyers make us sign? What are my real options here?

NDAs are definitely not just paper — they're enforceable contracts. But let me be realistic with you about what enforcement actually looks like.

Your options, from least to most expensive:

• Cease and desist letter ($2-5K) — sometimes enough to scare them, often gets ignored
• Motion for preliminary injunction ($15-30K) — if you win, court orders them to stop immediately
• Full litigation through trial ($50-150K+) — can recover damages but takes 1-2 years

The good news: you may have claims beyond just the NDA. The Defend Trade Secrets Act (federal) and your state's trade secret law likely apply. These can provide stronger remedies than contract breach alone.

Key question: can you actually prove they're using YOUR specific methods vs. having developed something similar independently? "Identical" is a strong word — do you have documentation showing exactly what your process is?

went through almost exactly this last year. former sales director took our entire customer list and pricing strategy to a competitor.

we sent a C&D, they basically said "prove it." we filed for a TRO (temporary restraining order) and won — judge issued an order within 10 days forcing them to stop soliciting our clients.

total cost was about $40K but honestly worth it. competitor backed off completely after that. sometimes u just gotta show ur willing to fight.

Practical question: what kind of evidence do you actually have? The "industry contacts" thing is hearsay and won't hold up.

Things that would help your case:

- Dated documentation of your proprietary process (internal docs, git commits, design docs)
- His access logs to confidential materials
- Any communications about the confidential info
- Evidence of what the competitor is actually doing (marketing materials, product demos, customer reports)

tbh if you can't show a paper trail proving (1) you had something secret and (2) he took it, the NDA is gonna be hard to enforce regardless of what it says

Thanks everyone. The evidence situation is actually decent — we have detailed internal docs, Confluence pages with his edits, and Slack messages where we discussed keeping this confidential.

But I'm gonna be honest, $40-150K is terrifying for a Series A company. We have maybe 14 months of runway. Spending that on lawyers instead of product feels insane even if we're right.

Is there any middle ground? Like can I get a lawyer to send a really scary letter and see if they blink first?

Totally understand the budget concern. Here's the realistic path for a resource-constrained startup:

1. Hire an IP litigation attorney for a consult ($500-1000) to assess the strength of your case

2. If the case looks strong, have them send a detailed demand letter ($2-3K) that lays out your evidence and threatens specific legal action

3. If no response, consider a focused TRO motion — you can sometimes get one for $10-15K if the facts are clear cut

The key is the demand letter needs to signal you actually have evidence and know what you're doing. Generic "cease and desist" letters get ignored. A letter that says "we have Slack messages from April 15 where you acknowledged this was confidential, and Confluence logs showing you accessed the system 47 times in your final week" — that gets attention.

Also worth asking: does your investor have legal resources or relationships? Some VCs will help fund IP enforcement if the threat is existential.