The last post talked about Zettasett's claims that Intel stole its trade secrets during negotiation of a deal between the two companies.
What exactly is a trade secret?
Surprisingly, nearly all States in the U.S. define trade secrets the same. As you should know for your next cocktail party, the Uniform Trade Secrets Act has been adopted in 47 states (sorry if you live in Massachusetts, New York or Texas). If you are really hard core, the text of this statute is at uniformlaws.org.
In states with the Uniform Trade Secrets Act:
"Trade secret" means information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that:
(i) derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not 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.
What does that definition mean?
- Something is a trade secret if you protect it because it is valuable to your company.
- It remains a trade secret until you stop protecting it.
This means that trade secrets can be forever!
Some famous trade secrets according to CNBC are:
- Recipe for Thomas' English Muffins
- Formula for Coca-Cola
- Recipe for KFC
- Google search algorithm
- Your company's client list and source code
Please think about what secrets your company has and what you are doing to protect them. Everyone else is trying to figure them out!
Originally published October 8, 2014
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