Trade Secret Basics FAQ
What every business owner should know about trade secret law.
» What is a trade secret?
What types of information can trade secrets protect?
What rights does the owner of a trade secret have?
How can a business protect its trade secrets?
How can a business enforce its rights if someone steals or improperly discloses confidential information?
Is stealing trade secrets a crime?
What is a trade secret?
In most states, a trade secret may consist of any formula, pattern, physical device, idea, process or compilation of information that both:
- provides the owner of the information with a competitive advantage in the marketplace, and
- is treated in a way that can reasonably be expected to prevent the public or competitors from learning about it, absent improper acquisition or theft.
Some examples of potential trade secrets are:
- a formula for a sports drink
- survey methods used by professional pollsters
- recipes
-
a new invention for which a patent application has not yet been filed
-
marketing strategies
-
manufacturing techniques, and
-
computer algorithms.
Unlike other forms of intellectual property such as patents, copyrights and trademarks, trade secrecy is basically a do-it-yourself form of protection. You don't register with the government to secure your trade secret; you simply keep the information confidential. Trade secret protection lasts for as long as the secret is kept confidential. Once a trade secret is made available to the public, trade secret protection ends.
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