Trade Secrets

• Protect confidential information having commercial value

• No legal formalities are required, just keep it secret

• Potentially infinite term

• Civil and Criminal Liability

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Trade secrets protect commercially valuable confidential information.

No legal formalities are required to obtain rights--you just keep the stuff a secret.

These can live forever. For example, the formula for Coca Cola.

Most useful for information that is not easily protected by the other forms. Customer lists, for example.

Again, you enforce your rights by going to court or in certain instances by bringing charges, if the act is willful