Intellectual Property: Trade Secrets

Trade secrets are protectable in most states around the United States. Trade secrets generally refers to the intellectual property protection provided to a company for maintaining certain competitive information as a secret. Often, trade secret information includes formulas, business practices, processes, computer code, or compilations of information. In order to be protected as a trade secret, the information must be maintained as a secret, and it must not be generally known or readily ascertainable to competitors. In addition, the trade secret information must have an economic value to not being known.