A trade secret can be any information of commercial value decided by a business, for example, food and beverage recipes, computer algorithms and client lists. In contrast, a patent may only be granted to an invention that satisfies the specific criteria set out above, e.g., the invention must satisfy an inventive step.
"Trade secret" means any method, technique, process, formula, program, design, or other information that can be used in the course of production, sales, or operations that can also meet the following three requirements: (1) it is not known to persons generally involved in the information of this type; (2) it has actual ...
Examples of information that could be considered a trade secret include information such as, but not limited to, formula, pattern, algorithm, compilation, program, method, technique, customer lists, data sets or compilations, product road maps, pricing schedules, failed experimentation, or manufacturing processes.
Trade secrets broadly fall into two categories: technical information such as manufacturing processes, recipes, chemical compounds etc. or, commercial information including lists of customers, product launch date, results of marketing studies etc.
Trade secrets are intellectual property (IP) rights on confidential information which may be sold or licensed. In general, to qualify as a trade secret, the information must be: commercially valuable because it is secret, be known only to a limited group of persons, and.
In general, a trade secret has three parts: (1) information (2) economic value from not being generally known by others, and (3) reasonable efforts have been taken to protect the trade secret.
Trade Secrets. A person has a privilege, which may be claimed by the person or the person's agent or employee, to refuse to disclose and to prevent other persons from disclosing a trade secret owned by the person, if the allowance of the privilege will not tend to conceal fraud or otherwise work injustice.
Trade secrets encompass both technical information, such as information concerning manufacturing processes, pharmaceutical test data, designs and drawings of computer programs, and commercial information, such as distribution methods, list of suppliers and clients, and advertising strategies.