Protection of Trade Secrets in light of Business Law

“Intellectual property (I.P.) laws are generally territorial, but trade secret protection varies according to jurisdiction. Trade secret law protects technological and commercial information not generally known in the trade and prevents unauthorized commercial use by others. The policy behind trade secret protection is to encourage research and development by protecting the originator of business information and maintain proper standards of business ethics. A trade secret is common ‘any formula, pattern, device or compilation of information which is used in one’s business, and which gives the human opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors.’ There are three factors common to all definitions of a trade secret: (i) it is information not generally known to the public, (ii) it confers economic benefit by maintaining secrecy and confidentiality and (iii) is the subject of reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy. Trade secrets act as an incentive to incremental innovation in technology, not meeting the non-obviousness standard of patent law and copyrights. The inventions protected as a utility model, trademarks, industrial designs, artistic or literary works are often maintained as trade secrets until used or published during the process of registration or grant of the relevant I.P.R. A substantial part of economically meaningful technology, particularly new and cutting edge technology are prone to reverse engineering, such as biotechnology, computer program microchips, computer-aided designs and hence preserved as trade secrets. The exclusivity of the protection allows the innovation, invention and reproduction, by offering the owner an opportunity to discourage free riders and to recoup his investment. Trade secrets play a pivotal role in protecting innovations and establishing rights to use new technology. Trade secret protection extends to formula, patterns, plans, designs, physical devices, processes, software and know-how. The author in this article talks about the need for Trade Secret laws in India and their importance.”