Did you know the Coca-Cola Company keeps its secret soft drink formula sealed in a vault so that it doesn’t get into the hands of its competitors?
Company owners go to great lengths to protect their trade secrets. If they weren’t able to protect this valuable information, companies like Coca-Cola would risk losing their competitive business advantage.
To understand the value of trade secrets, we’ve written a short guide. Read on and we’ll tell you what’s important to know.
What Is a Trade Secret?
A trade secret is an object, a process, or an idea that is only known about or understood by those who work within a certain organization. It’s in the best interest of companies to protect their trade secrets because they give companies a competitive advantage over their competitors.
There are several things that a company needs to do to have something that’s legally defined as a trade secret. First, they need to make an effort to keep their valuable information from getting to the public. Trade secrets also need to have economic importance.
Despite their differences, people often confuse trade secrets with patents. The main difference between the two is that a patent is known by the public.
What Can You Protect as a Trade Secret?
Trade secret law offers protection for kinds of information that can’t be copyrighted, patented, or trademarked. This includes things like secret recipes or formulas, company processes, marketing strategies, sales strategies, and computer programs.
Many business owners who have secret information don’t actually realize that they’re able to keep this information protected with trade laws.
How to Protect Your Trade Secrets
Trade secret law can be complicated. This is because it involves both state and federal law. If you want to protect your business secrets, it’s therefore important to work with lawyers who understand how the law works in the state where you reside.
If you want to find out more about trade secret lawyers and what they do, consider checking out this article.
Easy Ways to Protect Your Confidential Business Data
You should start by doing an audit of your business secrets. If you identify secrets that are not currently protected, you should hire a trade secret lawyer to help you out.
It’s also a good idea to add “no trespassing” signs to keep people away from places where you keep your trade secrets. If your trade secrets are located on your computers, make sure that you have passwords in place.
Start Protecting Your Trade Secrets Today
If you’ve been wondering what trade secrets are, keep in mind that they are different than patents and copyrights. If you have trade secrets that you want to protect, consider hiring a lawyer to help you out.
Do you want to find out more about what it takes for a business to gain an edge over its competitors? If so, consider visiting the Business section of our website.
