Commercializing Your Startup's Big Secret Without Losing Its Value

Congratulations! Your startup is developing a revolutionary product or service that has the potential to transform an industry. Whatever the nature of that new product or service, at its core is an innovation – perhaps an algorithm, a concept, a formula or a compilation of data – that represents a major investment of effort and resources on your part. Now you get to showcase your innovation to prospective investors and other third parties in order to bring your startup to the next level.

But there's a catch. How can you let others in on your big, exciting innovation without compromising it? And how can you protect your innovation without breaking the bank?

In this two-post series, we first outline how trade secret law protects valuable business information such as the innovation discussed above. In the second post, we offer a primer on identifying and maintaining trade secrets, cognizant of a startup's generally limited resources, and with an eye toward any