A trade secret by definition is info that is confidential and valuable, and most importantly it must have competitive advantage.This could be a formula, practice, design, process, instrument, or any other compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable (wiki). There are three things that make a trade secret a trade secret.
1. Information is not generally known to the public
2. Economically beneficial to holder
3. There are reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.
Discovering trade secrets by illegal means like company espionage is punishable by law, but interestingly if you're smart enough to reverse engineer a recipe or formula, is a lawful act!
According to a United States International Trade Commission report on China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U.S. Economy, the commission estimated theft of trade secrets in China that led up to $1.1 billion in U.S. economic losses. The ITC reports that Asian nations are the focus of the cases filed thus far.
According to a recent story in Bloomberg, a Texas-based company is suing a former employee who stole the company trade secrets and went to work with a Chinese manufacturer. Since most of the evidence and witnesses were located in China for the case, a federal judge told the company to take its claim overseas. However, ITC is able to block imports of products that violate U.S. intellectual property rights--thereby cutting off a huge market for supposed foreign trade secret thieves. As most of these companies are concerned with the U.S. market, ITC enables them to keep the battle in the home country.
Trade Secrets are complicated properties to manage within a company themselves, fighting for them overseas seems like a harder battle. It is interesting to see how the U.S. ITC has come together to rescue U.S. companies for overseas theft, however the many companies suffer from losing markets abroad as documented by the $1.1 billion loss in the ITC report. While the 21st century thrives on innovation, it is interesting to see how with every step forward in the technology sector we have to be place an enormous effort in protecting new ideas and information.
As an intern with Symantec's Data Loss Prevention team, I've come to realize how big large companies are willing to pay to protect their and their customers information from slipping out into the real-world.
1. Information is not generally known to the public
2. Economically beneficial to holder
3. There are reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.
Discovering trade secrets by illegal means like company espionage is punishable by law, but interestingly if you're smart enough to reverse engineer a recipe or formula, is a lawful act!
According to a United States International Trade Commission report on China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U.S. Economy, the commission estimated theft of trade secrets in China that led up to $1.1 billion in U.S. economic losses. The ITC reports that Asian nations are the focus of the cases filed thus far.
According to a recent story in Bloomberg, a Texas-based company is suing a former employee who stole the company trade secrets and went to work with a Chinese manufacturer. Since most of the evidence and witnesses were located in China for the case, a federal judge told the company to take its claim overseas. However, ITC is able to block imports of products that violate U.S. intellectual property rights--thereby cutting off a huge market for supposed foreign trade secret thieves. As most of these companies are concerned with the U.S. market, ITC enables them to keep the battle in the home country.
Trade Secrets are complicated properties to manage within a company themselves, fighting for them overseas seems like a harder battle. It is interesting to see how the U.S. ITC has come together to rescue U.S. companies for overseas theft, however the many companies suffer from losing markets abroad as documented by the $1.1 billion loss in the ITC report. While the 21st century thrives on innovation, it is interesting to see how with every step forward in the technology sector we have to be place an enormous effort in protecting new ideas and information.
As an intern with Symantec's Data Loss Prevention team, I've come to realize how big large companies are willing to pay to protect their and their customers information from slipping out into the real-world.
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