Trade Secrets & Confidential Information Overview
GENERAL INFORMATION ON TRADE SECRETS AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
Every business owns and utilizes information that it does not want to share with its competitors, its customers, or the public at large. This information may take the form of client lists or secret recipes. If your business is a "one person show" (such as the famous chef who refuses to allow anyone in the kitchen while he selects and measures out the ingredients to create a special sauce) you may never need to share the information; however, in most businesses, in order to succeed and/or expand, it will become necessary to share this information with others such as employees, business partners, or potential investors.
In order to ensure that confidential business information is not improperly disclosed, the business owner needs to be rigorous and aware of the means and methods of guarding against inadvertent disclosure or, in some instances, industrial espionage (theft of the confidential business information). Since the advent of word processing, easy accessability to the computer, and the explosion of the Internet, information is now, more than ever, easily obtained, duplicated, and distributed.
Equally important, as a growing business, you may be a recipient of someone else's confidential business information. As such, you will be under serious legal obligations to keep the information secret.
(a) Related Concepts are "know how" and "show how"
2. Protection of Trade Secrets
3. Defenses to Allegations of Unauthorized Taking or Use of a Trade Secret
4. Disclosure of Trade Secrets or Confidential Business Information to Third Parties
5. Trade Secret Protection in the U.S.A. - Criminal Liability
8. Extraterritorial Provisions of The Economic Espionage Act of 1996