Trade secrets are often lost through disclosures in the absence of a confidentiality agreement. Information that is readily ascertainable is not capable of trade secret protection. While the amount of effort needed to reverse engineer can show the information is readily ascertainable, this defense applies even when the reverse engineering is difficult and the information is not readily ascertainable. Reverse engineering is a complete defense, since it shows the information, trade secret or otherwise, was properly acquired from public sources of information. Your company may still protect the information even if the information is or might become generally known or readily ascertainable.
Contracts can also provide rights that exceed the bounds of trade secret law.
A decision to pursue patent protection instead of trade secret protection is an involved decision that should be discussed with competent counsel. Inc. All Rights Reserved.