Trade Secret

A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers. In some jurisdictions, such secrets are referred to as "confidential information", but should not be referred to as "classified information", due to the nature of the word "classified" in the USA.

Read more about Trade Secret:  Definition, Protection, Comparison With Trademarks, Comparison With Patents, Trade Secret Protection, Discovering Trade Secrets, Cases

Famous quotes containing the words trade and/or secret:

    Conversation is a traffick; and if you enter into it, without some stock of knowledge, to ballance the account perpetually betwixt you,—the trade drops at once: and this is the reason ... why travellers have so little [good] conversation with natives,—owing to their [the natives’] suspicion ... that there is nothing to be extracted from the conversation ... worth the trouble of their bad language.
    Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

    All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)