Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are IP assets?
Trade secrets can be your company’s most valuable IP asset, differentiating it from your competitors.. Broadly, the term “trade secrets” deals largely with confidential, or closely held information which can take the form of unpatented inventions, formulae or designs, software code or material science, algorithms or a simple but unique pricing approach.
It is something your business would not want a member of staff approaching a competitor with and must be protected via the implementation of a trade secrets policy.
What is the difference between patent and trade secrets?
Unlike patents, trade secrets are protected without registration; that is, trade secrets are protected without any procedural formalities. As a result, a trade secret can be protected for an unspecified period of time, thus proving more advantageous than patents, which have a protection limit of 20 years. This can be a particularly beneficial solution where a technological product cannot be easily reverse-engineered or, in fact, where a trade secret does not qualify for formal registrable protection. There are, however, a handful of conditions for the information to be considered a trade secret, and compliance with such conditions may turn out to be more difficult and costly than would appear at first glance. While these conditions vary from country to country, some general standards exist which are referred to in Art. 39 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement):
- The information must be secret (i.e., it is not generally known among, or readily accessible to, circles that normally deal with the kind of information in question)
- It must have commercial value because it is a secret
- It must have been subject to reasonable steps by the rightful holder of the information to keep it secret (e.g., through confidentiality agreements)
How do trade secrets apply to me?
Your company may have certain forms of know-how or organizational knowledge which are critical to its competitive advantage, but which retain value only if they remain a secret. These can take a variety of forms, including a critical database, algorithm or software, a technical attribute of a piece of equipment, a unique process, a recipe or secret ingredient in a product or other forms of registrable IP which may be ill-suited to protecting your company’s key IP assets. It is crucial to recognize that just merely having the policy, protocols, and password protections, etc. in place may not be sufficient, as an effective trade secrets policy needs to be recognized by all staff and embedded within the IP culture of a business.
These trade secrets when recognized and protected can become very valuable IP assets of the business.
