What is a Trade Secret

Trade secrets are very different from patents, copyrights and trademarks. While patents and copyrights require you to disclose your information in the application process, information that eventually becomes public, trade secrets require you to actively keep the information secret. Trade-secret protection can potentially last longer than that of patents 20 years and copyrights 100 years. Some of the ways to protect a trade secret are as follows:

Have anyone that comes in contact with the trade secret, directly or indirectly, sign non-disclosure agreements.

Restrict access to the information; lock it away in a secure place, such as a bank vault.

Mark any written material pertaining to the trade secret as proprietary. Trade secrets remain valid only as long as no one else has discovered the information independently; the information has not been made public�by employees or published literature� nor discovered by working backward from the original product/process or publicly observing the product/process. If the trade secret is revealed in violation of a non-disclosure agreement, you can sue for damages.

Limit the number of people who know the information.

If the economic value of a piece of information relies on it being kept private, it could be a trade secret.

However, once the secret is revealed, it is hard to get the trade-secret status resumed. Trade secrets are protected under many state laws, Federal statutes and some international laws.

Have the people who know the trade secret agree in writing not to disclose the information, sign non-disclosure agreements.

A trade secret is information that allows you to make money coz it is not generally known. A trade secret could be a formula, computer program, process, method, device, and technique, pricing information, customer lists or other non-public information.