The Secret Service Industry: Reimagining Trade Secret Protections to Curb Exploitation in the Hospitality Industry

This paper observes and analyzes the current discussion around the exuberant use of non-compete clauses in the business world by placing a focus on the hospitality industry and why, in an time where we are witnessing the demonization of non-competes it might be prudent to revisit and enhance trade secret laws to make them better equipped to handle the caseload that would inevitably come should non-competes be banned by the FTC. While the near-ban or complete ban of non-competes would certainly affect other industry fields and bodies of law, the hospitality industry is one that has been particularly scrutinized as the media has brought to light the predatory nature of non-compete usage on low-income, unskilled employees. Furthermore, trade secret law has always been the most underdeveloped body of law for intellectual property as it has for decades been substituted for non-competes.