Over eighty (80) percent of senior executives recognize that trade secrets are critical to their business. Sixty nine percent foresee trade secrets as becoming more important than any other category of Intellectual Property (IP), including patents¹. Nearly one third list trade secrets as a top 5 concern¹. But did you know that the insurance market rarely covers the theft or misappropriation of these assets? It’s crazy when you think about the fact that upwards of 80 percent of the value of the average US company is comprised of IP assets², yet they are not protected by insurance!

Why have these assets, up until now, not been insured? The answer is a confluence of several factors which have made this a massive challenge in the industry.

Fundamentally, the steps in any solid risk management program include identification of risk, quantification/valuation of exposure, demonstrable prevention/mitigation, and then risk transfer through insurance (or other contract when possible). From the get-go, the vast majority of organizations will be cut off from the possibility of looking to insurance as a risk transfer vehicle because they do not have a formal process to identify or value trade secret assets (TSAs) in the first place, nor do they have a formal process in place to determine when these assets have gone missing, or mitigate the loss once the TSAs are out the door. Why is this the case? Maybe it’s because securing meaningful insurance has not been an option even when these things are present, thus we have a vicious cycle.

With a proven track record of developing a “market”, or insurance capacity where there wasn’t any before, I sought to break the cycle. My passion about finding a solution drove me to pivot to a new role after a successful and fulfilling career as a Cyber/Technology specialist insurance broker. And by surrounding myself with some of the foremost experts in various aspects of the trade secret risk management puzzle, I believe we have succeeded!

Crown Jewel^SM Insurance (CJI), a trade secret risk management and insurance advisory company, was created to bring a full suite of risk management services to brokers, lawyers, and corporations grappling with the risk of theft of these critical assets. This threat is significant not only for corporations individually, but also in a very real sense to our economy as a whole! CJI has built a ground-breaking solution including up to $50M (and growing) of first party Trade Secret insurance, a market-leading first! This solution, collectively called Crown Jewel^SM Protector, could be the most valuable tool in your risk management arsenal, protecting the company’s key differentiators (e.g. formulas, designs, processes, even “negative know-how”) from adversaries, both foreign and domestic, while at the same time supporting creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

This offering is great news for the private equity/venture capital space, because there is little real insurance to protect the value of their investments in the current insurance market. But virtually any organization with a penchant for the development of new products and services could benefit.

Please look around our site and be sure to contact us with any comments, questions, or to set up an initial consultation via phone. You will also find the contact details of our key partners on the Resource page. Thanks very much for your visit!

Warm Regards,
Mary Guzman, CEO and Founder
Copyright January 7, 2020.

1. Baker and McKenzie; The Board Ultimatum, 2017
2. Lexology.com; July 18, 2011, Michael A. Mann