Trade Secret

Confidential business information that gives you an edge, a formula, algorithm, process, or customer list, protected by keeping it secret rather than by registration.

Why it matters

Trade secrets can protect what patents cannot or should not disclose, but the protection lasts only as long as the secret holds. Guarding them through NDAs, access controls, and good practice is the price of that protection.

For example

Coca-Cola protects its formula as a trade secret rather than patenting it, since a patent would require publishing exactly how it is made.

Related terms

Intellectual Property Non-Disclosure Agreement Patent

Go deeper

See how founders actually handle this on Co-founders, team and legal, part of the Starting Up hub.

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