Trade Secrets FAQs
Straight answers on working with us, litigation, trademarks, patents, copyright, business formation, and more. Search, filter by topic, or ask your own question below.
By taking reasonable steps to keep it secret—that's the whole legal test. In practice that means confidentiality agreements, access controls so only the people who need the information have it, marking sensitive materials, and real onboarding and exit procedures for employees and contractors. There's no registration and no expiration: protection lasts exactly as long as the secret stays secret and your safeguards hold up.
Trade Secrets
Before you share non-public, valuable information—with a prospective partner, a contractor, an investor in diligence, or an employee who'll have access to sensitive material. A good NDA defines what's confidential and how it can be used, and it doubles as evidence of the reasonable measures trade-secret protection requires. One caveat: many experienced investors won't sign one at the pitch stage, so don't let an NDA become the thing that stalls a raise.
Trade Secrets