Most businesses make use of some form of trade secret/s in their
daily operations. Almost any confidential information which
provides a company with a competitive advantage could be a trade
secret. This includes business methods and/or systems, databases,
formulae, designs, software, manufacturing processes, recipes,
customer lists, etc. The potential value in this form of
intellectual property becomes immediately apparent if one
considers, for example, the secret COCA COLA
formula which is reputed to be among the world's best kept
secrets.
One of the advantages of trade secret protection as opposed, for
instance, to a patent is that the protection could potentially last
for an indefinite amount of time, provided of-course that the
information remains secret. By contrast, in South Africa a patent
lasts for only 20 years. Once it expires everyone becomes entitled
to copy the previously patented invention. On the other hand
certain information simply is not patentable,
