Things every client should know about trade secrets

What legal rights does a trade secret owner have?

Unlike patent, trademark and copyright law, in which federal statutes played an early and increasingly dominant role, trade secrets remain a matter of state law. Although each state is free to develop its own laws relating to trade secrets (providing its laws don’t conflict with federal statutes and policy), the laws relating to trade secrets in most states are remarkably similar, because most states have followed one of two major sources in developing their laws relating to trade secrets: (a) the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (adopted in over thirty state jurisdictions); and (b) the Restatement of Torts.

In general terms, in most states, under both the Uniform Act and the Restatement approach, the trade secret owner has the legal right to prevent the unauthorized use or disclosure of a trade secret by a person who acquired the secret by improper means.