What is a trade secret? A trade secret is anything within your business that is not generally known to the public, that’s not readily ascertainable, and that give you, your company, or your business an economic advantage or other advantage over your competitors.  And so a trade secret definition typically incorporates these various concepts.  That, number one, it has to be this process, design, pattern, information or formula which is unique to you, that only you know about, and that your company has available to it, other competitors do not.

The next concept is that it has to provide you an economic advantage over competitors. So, trade secrets, by definition, can’t just be something that no one else knows. They have to be something that no one else knows, and that gives you an advantage over your competitors.  And these are very important concepts.  Trade secrets are, by definition, confidential information for your company.  And trade secret law will provide you protection in order to keep those trade secrets out of the hands of your competitors if you take the appropriate actions to make sure that you keep the information confidential; that you treat the trade secret information as a confidential piece of information.

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