Trade secret
business information kept secret to gain or maintain a competitive advantage
A trade secret is a type of intellectual property that protects a formula, process, or other business information that is valuable because it is not generally known or readily ascertainable and that the owner keeps secret in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Well-known examples of trade secrets include the formula for Coca-Cola, the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the formula for Zildjian bronze cymbals.
Unlike other forms of intellectual property, trade secrets normally do not require formal registration, and they can remain protected indefinitely as long as they continue to meet the legal requirements for trade secret status. Instead, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), among other measures, are commonly used to keep the information secret.
Like other IP assets, trade secrets may be sold or licensed. Unauthorized acquisition, use, or disclosure of a trade secret by others in a manner contrary to honest commercial practices is considered misappropriation of the trade secret. If trade secret misappropriation happens, the trade secret holder can seek various legal remedies.
Definition
The exact definition of a trade secret varies from country to country, as do the types of information eligible for trade secret protection. However, trade secrets are usually defined to be confidential information that is:
not generally known among or accessible to individuals within the relevant business sector;
commercially valuable because it is secret; and
subject to reasonable steps taken by the rightful holder of the information to keep it secret.
All three elements are required.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Trade secret” is business information kept secret to gain or maintain a competitive advantage. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Trade, secret and business, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “business information kept secret to gain or maintain a competitive advantage” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q602938. The Library of Congress control number is sh85136511. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Trade secret” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.