Intellectual Property & Trade Secret Protection in Houston

Helping Clients in Texas Protect Trade Secrets Since 1987

Your intellectual property – your brand, your proprietary processes, your client relationships, your creative work – is among the most valuable assets your business owns. Protecting it requires more than good intentions. It requires the right agreements, the right registrations, and the right policies in place before a problem develops.

Hendershot Cowart P.C. has been helping Texas businesses identify, structure, and protect their intellectual property since 1987. Managing Shareholder Trey Hendershot has more than 35 years of experience advising clients on trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, and the agreements that keep proprietary information secure.

On this page:

• Trade Secrets vs. Intellectual Property
• How to Protect Intellectual Property 
• How to Protect Trade Secrets
• What Does It Take to Qualify for Trade Secret Protection
• Houston Industries Most at Risk for IP Theft
• Protect Your IP Before Problems Arise 

Whether you are building your IP protection strategy from the ground up or looking to strengthen what you already have, our attorneys can help you assess where your business may be exposed – and what to do about it. Call (713) 783-3110 or contact us online to schedule a consultation.

Trade Secrets vs. Intellectual Property

What kind of intellectual property are you trying to protect? 

• Is it publicly known, but you want to protect others from using or monetizing it? Then it is likely considered intellectual property. 
• Is your IP asset a secret that gives your business a competitive edge? That would be better defined as a trade secret. 

Determining the type of IP you own will help determine the protection strategy that best fits. Consider these general definitions:

• Intellectual property is a broad term that encompasses all intangible assets created through human intellect, including software, brand names, inventions, and trade secrets (such as confidential client lists). Most intellectual property (excluding trade secrets) is publicly disclosed but can be legally protected from unfair competitive use via trademarks, patents, or copyrights. 
• A trade secret is a subset of intellectual property whose inherent value lies in secrecy, such as formulas, programs, patterns, financial data, business plans, client lists, contract terms, pricing strategies and methods, and manufacturing or operational processes. Trade secrets should be actively safeguarded to preserve their competitive value. 

For example, Coca-Cola’s brand belongs in the larger category of intellectual property, while its recipe is a carefully guarded trade secret.

How to Protect Intellectual Property in Texas

Our Houston IP law firm uses a variety of tools to mitigate the risks to your intellectual property, including:

Copyright Registration 

Copyright protection is governed by federal law and covers original works of authorship – such as books, paintings, computer programs, and blog posts – as soon as the work is fixed in a tangible form.

If copyright protection automatically applies when a work is created, why register it with the U.S. Copyright Office? A failure to register your copyright will affect your ability to fully enforce your rights. Once a copyright is registered, you have the option to file a lawsuit seeking statutory damages, attorney’s fees, and costs for copyright infringement.

To register your copyright, you will need:

• Copyright registration form (the specific form necessary will depend on the type of work being registered);
• Filing fee; and
• A copy of the work being registered with the Copyright Office.

DMCA Takedown Notices

Even if you failed to register your work, there are still enforcement options available, the most potent being the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”)

Any entity or individual with a valid copyright claim can submit takedown requests to online service providers.

A DMCA takedown notice must include:

• A statement that you are (or authorized to act on behalf of) the copyright owner;
• Specific identification of the infringing material;
• Identification of the location of the infringing material on the website;
• Contact information;
• A statement that the use of the material is unauthorized; and
• A sworn statement that the information submitted is true and correct.

Once submitted, online platforms must take prompt action to either remove or disable access to infringing materials.

While the DMCA does not provide a damage model, it’s an effective tool to stop unauthorized reproduction of your work.

Trademarks 

Trademarks are protected by both federal and state laws, with the possibility of registering with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for nationwide protection or the Texas Secretary of State for statewide protection.

According to the Texas Secretary of State, a trademark is:

• Something “used in connection with tangible goods or products”; and
• Defined by statute as “a word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination of those terms, used by a person to identify and distinguish the person’s goods from the goods manufactured or sold by another.”

Under Texas law, you do not have to register your mark as you do with copyrights to protect your rights, as Texas recognizes certain common law rights in this regard.

However, Texas does have a process to register your mark with the Secretary of State. Registration enhances your ability to enforce trademark rights and prevents others from using your brand name in Texas for the same class of goods or services.

The federal system of registering trademarks is like the Texas system in that you can register any mark which distinguishes your products. Federal trademarks are registered with the USPTO.

Federal trademark claims protect owners of a federally registered mark against the use of similar marks nationwide if such use is likely to result in consumer confusion or if the dilution of a famous mark is likely to occur.

Licensing or Technology Development Agreements 

Once you have registered your copyright or trademark, you have the option to license this work to others.

Under a licensing agreement, you can allow a third-party to use your trademark or copyright in exchange for a fee. The agreement further clarifies that while a third party can use the work, they are not the owner of the mark.

Alternatively – especially in the world of content creation – you can craft a licensing agreement whereby you grant ownership of your work to a third party but retain a license to use your work in connection with your own business.

Work-for-Hire Agreements 

A work-for-hire agreement is a contract to establish that your business – not the employee or contractor – owns all intellectual property created during the engagement. These agreements ensure the business has full ownership, usage, and control over intellectual property and provide perpetual protection under federal copyright law when properly structured.

How to Protect Trade Secrets in Texas

Your trade secrets are yours – and they can be kept safe from misappropriation with the following proactive safeguards and policies:

Confidentiality or Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) 

NDAs prevent disclosure of confidential information and are highly enforceable in Texas, providing immediate and ongoing protection. NDAs are often used in contractor or vendor relationships, joint venture agreements, or business negotiations. 

Non-Compete Agreements 

Non-compete agreements restrict competitive activity and are enforceable in Texas if reasonable in scope, time, and geography. 

To be enforceable, a non-compete agreement must:

• Be ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement, such as an employment agreement;
• Be reasonable in scope of activity;
• Be reasonable in geographic area; and
• Be reasonable in time limits (the typical duration is one to two years).

Non-compete agreements for physicians in Texas have their own strict requirements, including buyout caps, geographic limitations, and access to patient records upon separating from the practice.

If a non-compete agreement is overly broad, a Texas judge has the discretion to either:

1. Redline your non-compete to make it enforceable; or
2. Choose not to enforce your non-compete agreement.

Non-competes are not viewed by the courts as a punitive agreement, but rather as what is necessary to protect your legitimate business interests. As such, when enforcing a non-compete, you must articulate what the former employee knows that must be protected from disclosure.

Non-Solicitation Agreements 

Non-solicitation agreements, commonly used alongside non-compete agreements, contractually prevent former employees from reaching out to customers, employees, or vendors to lure them away from the business. Texas courts enforce these agreements when reasonably tailored to protect legitimate business interests, with typical durations of one to two years.

Unlike non-competes, non-solicitation agreements don't require specific geographic limitations.

Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act

Even without a non-solicitation or non-compete agreement in place, your trade secrets are still protected by Texas law.

Under the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA), a trade secret is defined as “information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, process, financial data, or list of actual or potential customers or suppliers, that:

• Derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by, other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and
• is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.

TUTSA allows trade secret owners to bring claims in Texas court to stop the use of the trade secret and recover damages, including attorneys’ fees.

What Does It Take to Qualify for Trade Secret Protection in Texas?

Not every piece of business information qualifies as a trade secret. Under Texas law, two requirements are fundamental: the information must be secret – meaning not generally known or readily available – and it must give your business a competitive advantage because of that secrecy.

Beyond that, Texas courts apply a six-factor test to determine whether information is legally protected:

1. The extent to which the information is known outside your business 
2. The extent to which it is known by employees and others inside your business 
3. The measures you have taken to guard its secrecy
4. The value of the information to you and to your competitors 
5. The effort and resources invested in developing it 
6. The ease or difficulty with which others could properly acquire or duplicate it

Courts don't require every factor to be satisfied – but they consistently scrutinize the ones within your control: your agreements, your access controls, and how consistently you treat the information as confidential.

The practical takeaway: protection is not automatic. What qualifies under Texas law depends heavily on what you did to protect it before any dispute arose. If you're not sure your current practices are enough, that's exactly the conversation to have now – before a problem develops.

Houston Industries Most at Risk for IP Theft

Based on our 35-plus years of experience, we have found the following industries to be at greater risk for trade secret theft or IP infringement in the Houston area, making proactive efforts to protect IP even more critical:

• Energy & Oil & Gas: Houston's energy sector faces constant IP threats including disclosure of proprietary drilling techniques, reservoir data, geological analysis, and pricing strategies – especially as fallout after an M&A deal fails. 
• Healthcare: Medical practices, hospitals, and med spas are often involved in trademark disputes when brand names or logos appear to cause patient confusion in the communities they serve.
• Technology & Software: Software developers working as contractors frequently field claims of NDA violations when developing apps or software solutions for themselves or other clients.
• Professional Services: Accounting firms, law firms, consulting practices, and financial advisors depend heavily on client relationships. Trade secret theft typically involves stolen client lists and controversy over whether the departing professional solicited clients away.
• Franchise & Restaurant Operations: Franchise and restaurant brands are significant IP assets vulnerable to infringers eager to borrow the brand’s goodwill.
• Manufacturing & Industrial: Manufacturers face theft of production processes, blueprints or plans, and product formulations. These trade secrets often represent years of research and development.

If your Houston business operates in these industries, proactive IP protection through employment agreements, trademark and copyright registration, and taking measures to protect confidential trade secrets is essential.

Protect Your IP Before Problems Arise 

Your intellectual property – your client relationships, your brand, your proprietary processes – represents years of investment and hard work. The strongest position you can be in is one where your IP is properly registered, your agreements are airtight, and your team knows what to protect and how.

Hendershot Cowart P.C. has been helping Texas businesses build and maintain that position since 1987. We work with you proactively to identify what you have, structure the protections that fit your business, and put the agreements and policies in place that make enforcement possible if you ever need it.

Call (713) 783-3110 to schedule a consultation with our team. Tell us about your business, and we'll help you identify where your IP may be at risk – and what to do about it now.