(161c) How to Identify and Protect Trade Secrets

To protect your chemical process innovations, it is vital to have a comprehensive plan to safeguard your intellectual property. While most companies include patents and trademarks as key components of their plan, some overlook the existence, role, and value of trade secrets. A trade secret can protect nearly any type of information as long as the owner takes reasonable measures to keep the information secret and the information derives independent economic value from being secret. But what measures are considered “reasonable”? This presentation will discuss what kinds of information can be protected and what types of security measures may be necessary to keep the information secret. Speakers will also highlight several case studies addressing whether a company’s secrecy measures were sufficient.