Video Transcript

Auto-generated transcript. Timestamps are approximate.

Hey, this is Innovation Cafe, and today we’re going to do trade secrets in under a minute.

What is a trade secret? It’s exactly what it sounds like — it’s something that you have that’s secret that helps you in your trade or business. We typically think of a trade secret as a customer list, but they could include things like industrial processes, how you make a drug, how you manufacture certain articles. So trade secrets are something that you have to keep secret. Think the formula of Coca-Cola, or the special blend of herbs and spices in Kentucky Fried Chicken — those are kept as trade secrets.

The advantage of trade secrets is that they never expire. The disadvantage is other people can reverse-engineer them and you have no protection against that. And if someone legally manages to figure out what your trade secret is, it’s no longer going to be of any value. That has been trade secrets in a minute. Innovation Cafe, signing off!