MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Carlos Hernandez, Roxana Aispuro and Luis Emilio Moncada, BC&B Law & Business
2.2 Employee Relationships Article 166 of the FLPIP establishes that any per - son who (by reason of their work, employment, position, professional performance or business relationship) has access to a trade secret – the confidentiality of which they have been warned about – must refrain from disclosing it without the consent of the person who exercises legal control over it or the consent of its authorised user. According to the foregoing, the elements of a trade secret misappropriation do not differ where the misappropriation involves an employee of the owner and the only obligation is refraining from disclosing the trade secret without the con - sent of the person who exercises legal control over it or the consent of its authorised user. 2.3 Joint Ventures Mexican law does not recognise the existence of obligations between joint venturers with regard to trade secrets. 2.4 Industrial Espionage Industrial espionage is not specifically regulated in Mexico. However, the claims and penalties that are unique to trade secrets in Mexico are described in 1.14 Criminal Liability . 3. Preventing Trade Secret Misappropriation 3.1 Best Practices for Safeguarding Trade Secrets Some recognised best practices for safeguard - ing trade secrets are: • to create and promote within the company a culture of protection of confidential informa - tion and trade secrets;
• to define internal policies to define which information will be considered as trade secret since not all confidential information is a trade secret; • to define internal levels of authorisation to obtain confidential information and trade secrets, depending on the position and activi - ties of the employee; • to identify internally the important assets for the company that shall be considered as trade secret – create an assets inventory; • even though it is no longer a requirement by law, it is recommended to document the trade secret in physical or electronic media; • to mark all confidential information and trade secrets as confidential; • to sign confidential and non-disclosure agree - ments with all people that need to access to information related to trade secrets; • to adopt sufficient means or systems to pre - serve the confidentiality of and restrict access to information related to trade secrets; and • to warn any person in the company that they will have access to information related to trade secrets. These measures can be used in any industry. 3.2 Exit Interviews When an employee leaves a company, it is rec - ommended to warn them that they had access to information related to trade secrets of the com - pany and that they cannot disclose the informa - tion to any third party without the consent of the person who has legal control of the trade secret even when they no longer work in the company. In some cases, it can be useful to sign a letter of understanding or a non-disclosure agreement establishing in writing the provisions of confi - dentiality and protection of trade secrets that must be aligned with the employment contract.
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