Trade secret protection is a state right under the Uniform Trade Secret Act (UTSA) or similar state laws. Drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, the UTSA mainly provides relief if information is leaked to your competitors.

To warrant such relief through a court of law, the trade secret must be shown to be both commercially valuable and far enough removed from general knowledge that it is reasonably difficult to discover, such as in a vault or protected by a similar measure. Also, a company must show that it has been diligent in keeping its information secret.

Because patented inventions are made publicly available upon granting of the patent, patent protection and trade secret protection are mutually exclusive; however, because patent applications are kept confidential until and unless they are approved, save for the new 18-month publication rule, an invention can remain a trade secret if the patent application is rejected.

Copies of the UTSA can be ordered from the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniforms State Laws, 676 North St. Clair Street, Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60611. Forty states have enacted various statutes modeled after the UTSA; therefore, the UTSA should not be relied upon without consulting with intellectual property counsel.