How do you maintain a trade secret in the Internet age? As in
the punch line to an old joke, "VERY CAREFULLY."
After all, to preserve a trade secret, you need to maintain it
with reasonable confidentiality.
The problem, of course, is the way the Internet facilitates
rapid copying and transmission of materials. If a trade secret
leaves your building in papers in the briefcase of a renegade
employee, you may be able to recover the papers and reestablish the
confidentiality of the trade secret. But if it is posted on the
Internet, it will likely be copied, recopied, and distributed to so
many people that full recovery won't be possible.
The Business Law Basics
The essential elements of a trade secret, under the
Uniform Trade Secrets Act enacted by most states, and also under
the federal
Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016, are relatively simple:
information used in a business, that is maintained confidentially,
through reasonable and appropriate efforts, and that
