Trade Secrets are your business’s confidential knowledge, the secrets locked away behind the hidden door.
Protection of your trade secrets, also sometimes known as proprietary information or confidential information, lasts only as long as you take reasonable steps to keep the information secret and the information retains commercial value because it’s secret.
This could be a proprietary horror makeup formula, a special effects technique, or your confidential vendor list. Anything that gives you a competitive edge. Sometimes it makes more business sense to protect these things this way than to get a patent that has a term limit and makes everything public.
Sloppy security sinks secrets, though. Once the secret gets out, like through you posting about it online or someone blabbing about it because you didn’t use NDAs, its value is gone like a vampire in a puff of smoke. The secret about trade secrets is that they can make you money BECAUSE they’re secret, and they can destroy your business if they escape from their cages.
Intellectual property is one of the most terrifyingly useful tools you have. If you’re a creator or other entrepreneur ready to build a frighteningly powerful brand and business, you need to know how to use it. You don’t have to face the darkness alone, though.
I help entrepreneurs across the U.S. make smart, legally sound decisions about their intellectual property. I’m an attorney in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, but I serve intellectual property clients nationwide.
If you’d like to consult with me, please book a consultation online at kingpatentlaw.com or by calling my office at 312-596-2222 or 217-714-8558.
Please check out the other posts and pages on my website for more information on intellectual property and business law issues. I’m also on most major podcast platforms as “Know Your Rights: Your Intellectual Property and Business Law Playbook” (video on YouTube, Spotify, and Substack only) and on most social media as @kingpatentlaw.
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