Trade Secrets: yours and everybody else’s

As we discussed last week, trade secrets are a type of Intellectual Property protection.   The courts define “trade secret” very broadly.  It can mean any type of confidential or secret information that gives a business a competitive edge.  Some examples of trade secrets: survey methods used by professional pollsters; formula for a sports drinks; recipes; a new but unpatented invention; manufacturing techniques; marketing strategies; and computer code or algorithms.  Trade secrets can even mean a good prospect list or supply chain.  Trade secrets are any valuable business information that is not generally known.

Generally trade secrets are most important in four types of business interactions: