Law360, New York ( January 8, 2015, 10:19 AM EST) -- Many companies have developed trade secrets policies to protect their valuable information, but even forward-thinking companies may not have internal controls to avoid liability as third parties to alleged trade secret misappropriation. While recently hired employees are one obvious source of potential liability if they bring to the job information obtained from their prior employer, in recent years companies have also increasingly faced suits based on relationships with contractors and vendors. In any of these situations, a company can find itself charged both directly for misappropriation of trade secrets derived from others, and vicariously based on agency principles....