SESKStuff Everyone Should Know
SESK: Stuff Everyone Should Know · sesk.info/founder-trade-secret-elements

What makes business information a trade secret?

It has value from secrecy and receives reasonable secrecy efforts.

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  1. Economic value from secrecy plus reasonable protection ✔
  2. A government registration certificate
  3. Publication in a public manual

Why: Trade secret information must gain actual or potential economic value from not being generally known. The owner must also use reasonable efforts to keep it secret.

Huh, didn't know that: Trade secret protection complements patent protection, and it needs no government registration.

The dad joke
Why did the recipe whisper? It was keeping the sauce confidential.
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References

Answer: Economic value from secrecy plus reasonable protection. Trade secret information must gain actual or potential economic value from not being generally known. The owner must also use reasonable efforts to keep it secret.

  1. Trade secret policy www.uspto.gov/ip-policy/trade-secret-policy
    Is subject to reasonable efforts to maintain such information secret
    Checked 2026-10-11.

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