trade secrets

trade secrets definition - legal

n

Formulas, devices, or other manufacturing or business pattern, and so on that are kept confidential in order to continue an advantage over the competition. Whatever the secrets are, they are not protected by patent, so their owner holds no formal protection. Once a trade secret is leaked or discovered by analysis, the discoverer is free to use it to his or her own advantage.

Webster's New World Law Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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