LegaMart | A Borderless Community of Lawyers
Hero

Navigate the Legal World in Real-Time!

LegaMart is the most diverse online legal service on the market, connecting lawyers and those seeking legal counsel in any jurisdiction, area of expertise, or capacity around the world.

Looking for a lawyer?

Find duly licensed practicing lawyers in our unique lawyer directory. Select the one right for you by jurisdiction, practice area, or language. Compare lawyers by their expertise and quote.

Practice Area
Country
Preferred Language

We’ll help you with your legal cases, just the way you need it.

From translation of documents, to hiring a lawyer! Simply tell us what you need and we’ll connect you to the best option in our comprehensive network of professionals. Review, compare, get quotes and choose. Submit your request now!

Advisory

Advisory

Simply present your case, review a list of appropriate lawyers, receive proposals and get advice from the best lawyer for your case.

continue
Advocacy

Advocacy

Have your case reviewed and from a list of top lawyers, choose the best candidate to represent you.

continue
Translation

Translation

Easily get a high quality translation from our professional platform at an unbeatable value for money.

continue
Case Review

Case Review

Not sure if you need a lawyer, or what are your chances of winning the case? Get short and efficient advice on how to proceed with your case.

continue

Meet some of our lawyers

Are you a lawyer?

LegaMart community can help you meet new referral partners, in a professional environment and generate clients for your practice.

Why you should use LegaMart

label

100% Satisfaction guaranteed

We pride ourselves on the safety and quality of our services and hence offer a 14 days money back policy to assure our customers’ satisfaction.

label

Transparent pricing

We’ll let you know exactly what you’ll pay from the start to help you make the best decision for your needs.

label

Verified and vetted lawyers

All member lawyers are pre-screened and in good standing with their state's bar associations.

label

Privacy

Your personal information will remain private. We do not sell or solicit your information to any person or outside the business.

Get answers to your legal questions

Join our vast and unique community and connect to our network of legal professionals, ask your questions and receive answers from the best practitioners of the field around the world in real time.

QuestionNov 29, 2021 - 13:46
Report This Post

Can foreigners get bar license in Germany?

Is it possible to get a master’s degree in law in Germany after getting a bachelor of law in Turkey? Can I become a lawyer in Germany and start a life there?

0
1
QuestionNov 29, 2021 - 13:30
Report This Post

Cyber Crime

Someone has taken a screenshot of my video and posted it on his wall with offensive comments. Is it cybercrime and can I sue him, especially according to Pakistan cyberlaw?

0
0
QuestionNov 29, 2021 - 13:23
Report This Post

Invest in Greece

I am an Indian resident planning to purchase property in Greece. Can you guide me on the procedures required for foreigners in order to do so? To obtain a golden visa, how much should I invest in real state properties? And also, by having a golden visa am I allowed to work in Greece? Thanks.

0
0
QuestionNov 24, 2021 - 14:59
Report This Post

UK Tier 2 dependent visa

Can I continue working for my Indian company from the UK if I have a UK Tier 2 dependent visa?

0
1

What people are saying about LegaMart

Shahrzad S

Shahrzad S

Iran

I had to sell a property abroad and needed legal aid. LegaMart took care of all the legal matters. I dealt with a reliable customer care team along with a professional and experienced lawyer. I had a burden removed without even having to move!

quote-icon
Aria

Aria

United Kingdom

Aria is an international student studying in the U.K. He’s been living in London post-graduation and has received the news of his father’s death. On the flip side, he’s inherited a heavy load of cash! He wants to know if he can bring it over to the U.K. It’s always easy with LegaMart, I just need to ask my question! Soon enough, specialized sanctions attorneys in London answer my question. “There’s always a solution when it comes to LegaMart!””

quote-icon
Anna

Anna

Canada

Anna is a practicing family lawyer in Toronto. She works with an immigrant who is based in Canada but originally from Afghanistan. Her client is getting divorced and is struggling over a promised dowry (Mahr)back home. Anna is not familiar with the laws in Afghanistan and is about to surrender her case. Luckily, she decides to get help from “LegaMart - global legal community”, after joining LegaMart’s Community page, Anna swiftly networks with Kabul’s top and quickly resolves her legal burdens. “You can never go wrong by trusting LegaMart.”

quote-icon
Bruce J

Bruce J

Chile

I ran across a trademark infringement issue abroad and had no clue of the steps that needed to be taken. Law firms overseas were extremely costly and lacked proper communication methods. Luckily, I found myself a professional lawyer in the needed jurisdiction all with the help of LegaMart. Less cost and better service, thanks!

quote-icon

Recent blog posts

How to take your personal legal branding to the next level

How to take your personal legal branding to the next level

More and more legal practitioners are showing interest in leveling up their personal branding and getting to the top in the legal industry. Maybe you’ve tried your hand at boosting your legal career using digital media and branding too, and maybe you haven’t gotten the return on your investment you expected. Fear not! We’ll tell you all you need to kickstart your social media presence and content marketing, in addition to building your personal brand in the law, without wasting your time jumping from one platform to another. Why is it crucial for lawyers to develop their legal personal branding?In the legal industry, networking is king! Even before the digital era and the conception of ‘personal branding’, lawyers made sure to present an authoritative image of themselves to prospective clients, via the power of word of mouth. It’s pretty much the same these days, except that technological tools have taken the place of traditional door-to-door advertising. Therefore, It’s critical for lawyers with great ambitions to stay relevant in the legal business by consistently growing their presence in social media. Many lawyers and legal experts take a shot at this by running a personal website and producing legal content.But in most cases, lawyers who have dedicated their limited, valuable time to broadcasting detailed and practical content on their websites get disappointed with the less-than-stellar results and not getting the attention they truly deserve.What is the problem with running personal websites?Owning personal websites can be a remarkable experience for some, but won’t be the ultimate solution for all. Here are some of the drawbacks of running a personal website, to help you better decide whether it’s the right option for you or not:Demanding a great amount of time: On the internet, with its millions of websites and domains, it takes a great amount of time, effort, and of course SEO knowledge to drive traffic to your website and actually stand out. It could be quite challenging for many lawyers who are not familiar with SEO and can't allocate enough time to optimize their websites.High costs: Running a successful website could be quite costly. Purchasing a domain is only half the way. Maintenance and advertising costs should be taken into account. Without maintaining your website, your Google ranking will drop, and you’ll rapidly lose viewers.Slow Results: Building a website from scratch and bringing it up to a reliable and functional level won’t happen overnight. You should have a thorough long-term plan and stick to it in order to gradually attract a loyal audience and boost your digital footprint.Keep these facts in mind and consider both pros and cons of establishing your personal website, before making a hasty decision. Otherwise, you’ll end up feeling the same as those who feel like they’re invisible on the internet and simply give up.What would be the alternative?In past years, there has been a huge shift from personal websites towards contributing to blogging platforms such as Medium. Within these networks of writers, you can reach a vast number of readers at zero or minimal cost, and receive the feedback you need. Now, imagine a platform like what we just described, exclusive to lawyers and legal practitioners around the world. It will give you the opportunity to access an audience who can be your potential next clients or colleagues. The good news is that you don’t need to just imagine it. LegaMart's platform, the global community of lawyers, is out there to help you boost your personal branding.Why choose Legamart?Considering checking out our community? Let us tell you a bit about it. First of all, it’s free, easy to use, and a great environment to learn and cultivate connections to both colleagues and clients. You can find the best approach to gathering a bigger audience without any fear of failure.We’ve launched LegaMart articles section’s newest feature, making content marketing, blogging, and cultivating conversations around your brand and your ideas easier than ever.All you need to do is write your article, post it through your LegaMart account’s dashboard, and voila! We handle the rest for you! Your article will be placed at the top of our blog, and will feature your name and brand, in addition to linking directly to your profile. That’s where your audience can find and reach out to you, or read more of your content. Join LegaMart today and cut your personal branding journey short!
Iranian Lawyers in the UK

Iranian Lawyers in the UK

The United Kingdom, as one of the world's leading economic and cultural spots, is home to one of the biggest, most thriving legal markets. There is a significant community of Iranians living in the United Kingdom. Also, there are vital commercial bonds between Iran and the United Kingdom, even with the sanctions in place. Therefore, it is important to have a general knowledge about the legal ecosystem of the UK, trends affecting this market and also the community of Iranian lawyers in the UK. In this piece, we will briefly cover these topics.Legal ecosystem in the UKCountries constituting the United Kingdom come under three separate jurisdictions; England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. These jurisdictions have their own court systems and legal ecosystems. However, when it comes to analyzing the UK legal ecosystem, we will be considering all of these separate jurisdictions together.A report has shown that the value of the UK legal market, despite a slight decline in revenue (1.5 percent) during the first lockdown, has remained unchanged at £36.7bn. Business Wire states that: “By far, the largest segment in the UK market is legal work for business and commercial affairs (including commercial property), accounting for 46% of the total UK market revenue, and most of the high-value work in this segment is undertaken by the larger law firms. The largest segment in the consumer law market is personal injury/accident/medical negligence work valued at £4bn, although this sector has seen a decline in revenue in 2020. Family law and employment law are the next largest segments, followed by wills and probate and conveyancing.”The global legal services market size is expected to grow from $850 billion in 2017 to $1 trillion in 2021 at a growth rate of almost 5%. The adoption of new technologies could increase productivity growth in the legal sector from 1.3% per year to 2.7% per year. Legal market trends in the UKAccording to a report made by Reuters, not only did clients start to react more favorably to firms investing in the long-term development of the relationship, they also started to give those firms more work. Skills that make top performers stand out to the UK legal departments are being practical, investing in developing good working relationships, being commercial and strategic, being approachable and friendly, and delivering quality advice. In summary, these are currently the key trends and challenges in the UK legal market :Clients cutting their legal costsThe increasing market share of US firms and alternative legal service providers Mobility of talent Insufficient investment in technology In order to deal with these issues, some firms are focusing on their brand visibility, talent engagement, forming alliances with new law firms and tech providers. As a result of all the changes taking place since the pandemic, it was felt more than ever that UK firms needed to be more competitive to cater to the circumstances of the business market affected by the pandemic. Remote working is another main trend in the legal market. According to this report, it offers an array of benefits, such as greater efficiency, more productive use of technology, fewer commutes (which was particularly beneficial to those London-based partners who reported having the longest commute times of any city), and adoption of a better work-life balance. Another significant factor affecting the legal market is Brexit. US firms in the UK are less dependent on UK-EU relations and, as a result, seem to be less affected by this significant change. In general, it seems that most big firms have benefited from the increased need for advisory regarding the changes that will result from Brexit. Iranian lawyers in the UKIranian lawyers are practicing in all areas of law in the UK, including business, family, immigration, etc. Based mainly in London and Manchester, you can find solicitors active in some other fields of law such as Inheritance and Property Law. Amongst the top Iranian legal practitioners in the UK are Mansouri Solicitors (specialised in UK immigration, Property, and Employment Law) and Latif Zamani (specialised in Family, Welfare and Litigation). Hoffman-Bokaei is another leading independent London law firm (specialised in UK Immigration, Property, Employment, Commercial, Family, Criminal, and Litigation). Overall, there doesn't seem to be any reason to worry about not having access to a decent-sized market of Iranian and Persian-speaking lawyers in the UK, especially in England.There is an organized community of Iranian lawyers in the UK called BILA. BILA (British Iranian Lawyers Association) is the community of Iranian lawyers in the UK who work aligned with the new legal trends, and are able to speak English and Persian.  Below, you can see a shortlist of some of the most prominent Iranian lawyers who are active in the UK:Shahrokh KoussariShahrokh is a partner of Axiom DWFM with a wealth of experience in numerous sectors, such as banking and finance, media, retail, technology, energy, and renewable and real estate. He is capable of speaking in many languages and is known as a multilingual lawyer who speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Persian.Yasaman AsaadYasaman has got enough experience in dealing with cases such as commercial law, residential property and business and financial institutions. She is currently a member of Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP.Attieh FardAyyieh is the CEO of Fard & Co Solicitors law firm, with a great deal of experience in various trends, such as immigration, business, charity, family, employment, litigation and human rights. Her clients have been individuals, businesses and charities.Golnar Bokaei Golnar is the managing partner of ''Hoffman_Bokaei Solicitors.” She is a conservative councilor in the London Borough of Barnet and has experience in areas such as litigation, property, immigration, employment, licensing company, family, criminal, wills & probate.Abtin YeganehAbtin is an associate in the Dispute Resolution Department at Fletcher Day and has practical experience in different aspects, such as civil and commercial litigation. His clients are companies, officeholders and individuals.Ali SajjadiAli is the CEO of AS & Co and an experienced person in immigration matters. His fields of expertise include tourist visas, student visas, family reunification, marriage, point-based visas, permanent visas, obtaining citizenship and visa extension, Investment visa and work visa.Arman Khosravi Arman is a partner at Oliver Fisher Solicitors, and he is experienced in civil and commercial litigation which encompasses breach of contract, professional negligence, company disputes, partnership disputes, landlord and tenant and property litigation and he supports his clients including companies, individuals, sole traders and partnerships.                                                                   Mahgol ShariliMahgol is a multilingual legal advisor who can speak English, Persian, Swedish and French and also a member of Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP. She is experienced in commercial litigation, media and copyright.Javad MoghimiJavad is the cofounder at JMGB LEGAL with great expertise in various trends such as criminal, corporate, international, litigation and immigration law.Nadia BazzazNadia is a qualified solicitor in immigration law and also she has a wealth of experience in asylum, human rights, family and public law.Hamed SadehHamed is a registered foreign lawyer in England who manages a British law firm called MVLG.Mehdi ErfanMehdi is a reputable Iranian-British lawyer with a rich history of practicing in the healthcare industry. You might’ve heard of him in the recent cost recovery case between NHS England and private hospitals. He represented all hospitals in the argument mentioned. Having the experience of leading the legal department of major companies and startups, he could provide you with desired solutions during the time of complex challenges.What should you take into consideration choosing a multi-jurisdictional lawyer?Now that we have introduced some of the best Iranian lawyers in the UK, it is time to discuss what a client needs to consider when seeking a lawyer. First and foremost, a lawyer’s fluency in both Persian and English. Language skills are of crucial importance to lawyers and, therefore, a lawyer must demonstrate a high level of proficiency in both, if not more, languages. Previous work experience in both the UK and the Iranian market is another essential factor that must be considered. Moreover, the client needs a well-versed lawyer in the complexities of the two different legal systems. Academic background can also be another criterion that clients can examine when making a decision. To sum up:With all that said, Legamart is the perfect platform for Iranian lawyers and clients to interconnect. The design of this platform can assist clients to easily find Iranian and Persian-speaking lawyers who are active in the United Kingdom in specific fields. This platform can help Iranian lawyers in the UK broaden their clientele and find new opportunities to come across clients from the other side of the globe. With the changes about to happen to the way legal services will be offered in the future, being a part of an online platform dedicated to providing the best services possible is a must. Ease of access and trust in the quality of service is what we strive to provide here at LegaMart. Join us if you are looking for convenience, trust, quality, and efficiency.  
Legal Influencers in the Middle East: From an image to a real business

Legal Influencers in the Middle East: From an image to a real business

The Middle East has a wide range of variety, in a not broad region. Most countries in the Middle East are considered Muslim countries; however, the only Jewish state in the world is located right in this region. Arab states are the majority of the Middle East, while Persian, Turkish, and Kurdish speakers are numerous. This is also a matter of economics and legal systems.While Dubai is an international hub for trade and a huge percent of the world's energy is produced in this area, some non-oil states have difficulties in their daily economic requirements.Such a region has a variety of legal issues, with the rapid growth of money velocity through legal business. Several international law firms now have offices in some Middle Eastern cities, and numerous lawyers choose to work in this region, instead of India, South Africa, or the UK. They can earn more money in such trade hubs in different areas, such as Business and Corporate Law, Customs Law, Transportation Law, Banking and Insurance Law, or even Immigration Law. Here it seems that one component of a full legal sphere is still missing in the Middle East: Legal Influencers.Who are Legal Influencers?From legal knowledge lovers to lawyers and legal experts, they can be anyone who wants to expand must-know topics among the people. It is, however, a good way for advertising legal businesses, such as law firms, legal apps, publishers, etc.Moreover, they can build social streams in societies. Human Rights issues for example could be a hot topic in the Middle East, through which legal influencers can obtain public attention. In such societies, there still remain issues about the rights of children, women, minorities, labourers, and other vulnerable groups. Due to the changes in such societies during recent years, information broadcasted by legal influencers can quake several communities in each country.SMEs and Startups can be a good potential audience for legal influencers. They have a gigantic presence in the Middle East, representing a wide range of topics relating to business. Concerning the costly prices of legal services, they can benefit from the knowledge spread by legal influencers.Legal Influencers in the Middle EastThey are rarely wide-known. This is what we call a gap in the legal sphere. There are few legal influencers in the Middle East, who are able to obtain social attention. However, it could be regarded as a result of the young notion of legal influencer, or a generally conservative mindset of Middle East lawyers.It is possible in the Middle East, just like in South America, that legal influencers broadcast their content in their own mother tongue, while transboundary audiences can use it. The common language in such regions is a valuable benefit. It should also be mentioned that not necessarily all the content could be valid in all homophone countries. Legal systems in different countries may vary. Two Arab-speaking citizens of Lebanon and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can communicate easily, although their countries' legal systems, and therefore the principles and rules in each country are totally different.Reputable law firms in the Middle East can launch initiatives to sponsor influencers who are currently working or those who can start to pass this way. Such initiatives would become fruitful for both investors and potential influencers. They can find, or better to say, build new markets together and harvest in several ways, from obtaining regional clients, to direct and indirect marketing.Here we present some of the top legal influencers who are contributing to the development of their legal environment:Danial MinaieDanial is an Iranian Business consultant and legal market observer with a rich history of providing needed solutions for companies to approach occurring issues. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in law, he continued his educational path by studying International Trade law to have a more practical and business-oriented point of view of legal matters. Due to the lack of having soft skills and a strong business sense among the legal community of Iran, he found a way to interconnect the law and business by producing original and distinctive content in social media. He would encapsulate his end goal in this motto: “To empower lawyers to run their own business.” Through His unique approach to the legal environment, a wide variety of lawyers and law students are attracted to follow him up. He provides his content in English which will benefit a more significant population of readers. With over four thousand followers on Instagram and being active on Twitter, He established a remarkable presence on social media and made a new voice in the legal sphere.Bahareh FesharakiBahareh is a qualified Iranian lawyer with over six years of experience in the fields of business law, corporate law, and specifically contract drafting. She initiated her journey in the legal industry by succeeding in passing the bar exam and obtaining a bar license, but soon after practicing in law courts and actually facing the issues within the old-fashioned sphere of the whole process of litigation, she decided to shift her career to a new space of legal industry. To do so, she began to work with startups and SMEs as a contract drafter. From 2019, she started to share the knowledge and experience she gained through working with multiple companies, in the shape of contract drafting principles for young and junior law students and lawyers. By broadcasting professional and, at the same time, easy-to-follow content on her Instagram account, she managed to build up a sense of trust among her audience. Furthermore, based on the demand among her audience for an extensive and precise education focusing on writing professional contracts, she established an academy of contract drafting named “Fesharaki Law Academy.” Today, when you seek Farsi content regarding diverse types of contracts and how to write them, you’ll definitely hear from her.Fatima JamaluddinFatima is a graduate of the Paris Sorbonne University law school, Abu Dhabi. Since Completing her master of laws at the same university, she has been teaching law and working as a legal consultant, and providing free of charge constellations to individuals unable to acquire appropriate legal aid, as a contribution to her community. She is renowned for founding Women in law Middle East which has been described as a:” gateway for women in the region to voice out their knowledge, concerns, and influence legislative change.” Fatima established this community for all women in the law industry regardless of their profession or expertise. She arranges interviews with impressive and outstanding women to tell their stories in order to encourage and inform women across the middle east. Arash ZadArash is a lawyer and consultant in the UAE who has been practicing in various areas of law, including corporate disputes, real state, and company formation, for more than two decades. Arash has been pretty active in social network, including Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, and Tiktok. Those who were surfing the net to find a solution for their legal issue might have run into his posts and videos, explaining in the quickest and simplest way. He describes his endeavors as a mission to "Make Law Sound Simple.” By doing so, he will benefit both his audience by offering valuable information, and himself by building a strong connection with his audience and giving them a reference to approach him whenever they needed legal consultation.Nooshin RahmaniNooshin is a qualified legal counsel in Dubai working as a senior associate in Horizlaw. Since obtaining her bachelor’s degree in law, she worked with the highest law firms and gained valuable knowledge by dealing with most compounded cases. She created an online website providing online legal services, AskLawyer.ae, through which she provides free legal advice and engages with customers’ most prevalent legal concerns. As she is consistently involved in new challenges of the legal industry, she succeeded in keeping her website up-to-date and appealing to the viewers. Razan Al SayeghRaznan is a Lebanese graduate of law, currently training in a famous law firm in the city of Alley. From the very beginning, she was interested in law for the potential within it to make a change in the world. With such a perspective, she was always keen on pursuing ways to bring awareness to people unfamiliar with legal matters. Accomplishing that idea, she started running a legal account to regularly write about issues concerning different aspects of the law. For Lebanese readers wanting to expand their legal knowledge, Razvan would be a perfect choice to follow up.To sum up:All names mentioned above are among the best legal influencers contributing to building the modern structure of the legal industry in the Middle east. We hope to see more of these strong and courageous Middle Eastern legal influencers in the near future, by whom legal businesses and service providers can be fully benefited, as well as the public.
Patents VS Trade Secrets: The best way to protect your business

Patents VS Trade Secrets: The best way to protect your business

If you are an innovative person who’s worried about their inventions, or if you’re a company owner who needs to protect its confidential business information, this article is written just for you. Patents and trade secrets are of the most common types of intellectual property protection. At first glance, these terms may look a bit similar, but still you should be aware that distinctive advantages and disadvantages reside in each of them and it is of great importance to choose the method that fits your circumstances and your goals.Consider the Coca-Cola case for instance. If Coca-Cola had used patent protection for safeguarding its drink formula, it would have been protected only for a limited time and also wouldn’t have been a secret anymore. Thus the company definitely wouldn’t have been as wealthy and successful as it is now and would have lost its popularity only by choosing the wrong method of protection. So that’s how important it is to choose the suitable method of protection. A wrong choice would turn a giant company into a big loss, conversely, a right one can guarantee your business protection and make it a great success.What is patent protection anyway?In simple words, a patent is a legal document that grants an exclusive right to the creator of a new product or a process for a limited time. For obtaining patent protection there are certain registration formalities and payments depending on the law of the country from which you want to get the patent.What does it mean to obtain a patent? What rights do you exactly gain by obtaining it? The main value of a patent falls under the answer of this question. The patent holder can decide who may or may not use the patented invention. So when an invention is protected by a patent, it cannot be commercially made, used, offered for sale, sold or imported by others without the patent owner’s permission. However, you should be aware of the fact that this exclusive right is not unconditional, and that’s why learning about the cons and pros of a patent is of great importance.What are the pros of obtaining a patent?As mentioned earlier, the main benefit of patent protection is the monopoly that the patent holder gains on the invention. As long as you own the patent, you can use the patented invention in any form you want, meanwhile you have the right to take necessary legal actions against any usage that lacks your consent.But what should you pay in exchange for obtaining this right? In other words, what are the cons?  Registration formalities and feesIn order to obtain patent protection, you have to go through a  rather complex process of patent registration and pay the required fees which vary from country to country. So you need to reach for legal advice regarding the law of the related country before going through this procedure. Time limitationPatents are granted for a limited period of time which again varies in different countries. After the expiry of this period, your invention will fall under public domain, that is to say, everyone can exploit it and your permission won’t be a necessary requirement anymore.  Territory limitationPatent rights are only enforceable in the territory of the country or countries that have granted the patent to you. So, at least in the current state of the international patent system, there’s no such thing as a worldwide patent.The more countries give you the patent, the more protected your invention will be. This highly-recommended protection surely necessitates legal experts of different jurisdictions.  Risk of disclosureNote that patent rights are granted in return for the inventor’s full disclosure of the invention to the public. Indeed no matter how public the information is, while you have a patent, you’re protected. But the risk of shrewd infringement still exists. For example, if you create an improved perfume-spreading device which can spread the perfume to a certain distance, someone else may do the same only with spreading power in close distances. So competitors can easily make this device with slight differences that doesn’t violate your rights but appeals to the same buyers. Thus, if a new process is so vital and confidential that you never want your competitors to discover, you may need another type of protection which is going to be the next section and that is trade secret. What kind of secret is a trade secret?Suppose you are a company that provides products or services with unique features. For guaranteeing your income and of course protecting your special product or service from your competitors, you’d better keep the feature that makes your work exceptional as a secret. No matter if it’s a new formula or a special recipe. There are many popular examples of trade secrets that you’ve probably heard of, such as McDonald’s Big Mac “special sauce”, Google’s search algorithm and the most common one Coca-Cola’s recipe for their signature drink. So basically the types of work that you protect with trade secrets are secrets. These are things that might not be patentable, but are nonetheless commercially valuable. What are trade secret protection advantages over patent protection? No registration and paymentUnlike patents, trade secret protection needs no registration and as expected no payments.Thus, there’s no complex process in order to acquire trade secret protection. You literally don’t have to do anything to get a trade secret, except to do the things that make a trade secret, a trade secret. You must have a secret that you try to keep secret by for example, forcing people to sign non-disclosure agreements, training your employees not to disclose the secrets or even keeping them in safes. No time and territory limitationTrade secret protection is not limited to any time period. So the information can be a secret as long as you want it to be. Besides, since you don’t receive this protection from a specific jurisdiction, thus your secret is not limited to a certain place but it’s a secret everywhere.  No risk of disclosure Since you don’t have to disclose your invention to the public in order for the competent authority to give you trade secret protection- for it’s not obtainable from authorities at all- so there’s no risk of disclosure to the public. As long as you keep your invention a secret by means mentioned above, your confidential information will be safe.What are the drawbacks of trade secret protection in contrast to its tempting benefits? You are responsible for maintaining the trade secrets. As set forth above, trade secret protection involves taking necessary steps for maintaining this valuable confidential information, such as non-disclosure agreements or simply just keeping them in safes. Making any mistake in this regard, would directly hurt your business because once the secrecy is gone, there are no legal actions for you to take. Trade secret protection is not necessarily suitable for any subject matter.The difficulty of a trade secret protection is that, if your information concerns a specific method of building a device or any object, when putting it on the market, it would be susceptible to independent discovery and potentially reverse engineering. And when the information is unraveled, there’s nothing to do because you’re the one responsible for maintaining it. Conversely, if you protect this product under a patent, no matter how public the information will be, as long as you hold the patent, you can take legal actions against any form of exploitation which lacks your consent. So you’d better use the trade secret protection mostly for process inventions.What is the best way to protect your business?Now it’s time to sum up and find out which one of these types of protection works the best for you. The answer to this question would be different depending on who you are, what your aim of protection is and what the item that you want to protect is. So be careful that there’s no absolute answer. While deciding about which protection to choose, you must take into account all relevant circumstances including your finance sources, how much time you have for being protected, your subject matter of protection and more importantly the vision you have for the future of your business. The method of protection taken by others may not be necessarily the suitable one for you. Last but not least, note that for choosing your suitable method, you need to consult with a business lawyer. That’s an essential requirement since patent laws may vary from one country to another.Besides, you need to file an application in each country that you want your invention to be protected in, since in the current state of the international patent system, there’s no such thing as a worldwide patent. So the more countries that give you a patent, the more protected your invention will be.Share your goals and circumstances with business lawyers and they’ll guide you in accordance with the law of any desired country of yours.

Visit Community

Connect to our network of legal professionals, ask your questions and receive answers from the best practitioners of the field from around the world. It’s free and no registration required!

Sign up as a Lawyer

Join LegaMart’s community of professionals, grow your network, meet new referral partners and generate clients for your practice, all in a robust and online environment