What is a trade secret?
A trade secret is a piece of information used in business that is an ingredient of a product. This does not necessarily mean that it is a food or drink secret, although it is well known that many food and drink manufacturers claim to have a secret ingredient in their products. Coca Cola, for example, claims to have a secret ingredient, and that is their trade secret. Although Coca Cola claims to have a secret ingredient, the drink is regularly consumed by millions of people. The secret ingredient would have to have passed numerous safety and health tests before being deemed safe for consumption. Although Coca Cola has a trade secret, there are certain people who do not work at Coca Cola who know what this secret is. A trade secret can be used in any business or product. It can be used to make a product, or it can be a part of marketing and sales methods. Many companies have their own zealously guarded customer lists, and these are considered trade secrets. The trade secret is informati
A trade secret is the legal term for confidential business information. The Uniform Trade Secret Act (1985) defines proper trade secret subject matter as information “including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process.” A good non-legal definition of a trade secret is a secret belonging to a business. This information allows your company to compete effectively. Examples of trade secrets include customer identities and preferences, vendors, product pricing, marketing strategies, company finances, manufacturing processes, and other competitively valuable information. In the field of education technology, source code for software may be considered a trade secret. Under the Uniform Trade Secret Act, information must meet three criteria to qualify as a trade secret. First the information must not be “generally known or readily ascertainable” through proper means. Second, the information must have “independent economic value due to its secrecy.” And thi
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
A trade secret is business information that is the subject of reasonable efforts to preserve confidentiality and has value because it is not generally known in the trade. Such confidential information will be protected against those who obtain access through improper methods or by breach of confidence. Infringement on a trade secret is a tort and a type of unfair competition. Every alleged infringement of a trade secret involves two main issues: (1) whether there is valuable and secret business information; and (2) whether this defendant used improper means to obtain that information.
A trade secret can be a formula, pattern, compilation, program device, method, technique, or process. To be a trade secret, it must satisfy two tests: (i) derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from no being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by, other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use, and (ii) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.
