Unlike patents, trade secrets are protected without the need for registration, meaning no formal procedures are required. Therefore, trade secrets can be protected indefinitely or until the information remains confidential. For certain reasons, trade secret protection can be particularly attractive to both small and medium-sized enterprises. However, there are certain conditions for information to be considered a trade secret. Compliance with these conditions can make trade secret protection more challenging and costly than initially anticipated. While these conditions may vary between countries, there are still some common standards set forth in Article 39 of the TRIPS Agreement of the World Trade Organization:
- The information must be secret (meaning it is not widely known or easily accessible by those who regularly deal with such information).
- It must have commercial value because it is secret.
- Appropriate measures must be taken by the owner to keep the information confidential (e.g., through confidentiality clauses in employment contracts, non-disclosure agreements, etc.).
Some classic examples of protected trade secrets include the Coca-Cola formula and the source code of the Windows software.
