Thus, employers control trade secrets, as well as most patents and copyrights, even though the initial custodian of the underlying information was an individual employee. The rationale for vesting control in the employer rather than the individual who actually exhibits the genius necessary for the discovery of the information is that if employers control valuable information, they will continue to pay employees to advance the useful arts and science, and the public will ultimately benefit. Trade secrets are scientific or technical information that has value and that the discoverer has taken measures to prevent from becoming available to others. In the context of the teaching profession, trade secrets may include designs, teaching procedures, tests, handouts, and the like. In the context of the research profession, trade secrets may include data, experimental protocols, calculations, and the like.
Employers control trade secret information by keeping it secret.
An employee who frustrates this goal may face serious legal consequences, even though the employee does not benefit from his action. For example, in Texas and many other jurisdictions, merely making a copy of a document representing a trade secret is a felony, regardless of the value of the information copied. There can be no doubt that the law vests control of teaching and research trade secret information discovered or developed by faculties and other employees to the schools that employ them. Unnecessary competition due to outrageously redundant federally-funded research, especially in biomedical areas, has changed the way many researchers share data with other scientists. Under trade secret law, such information is clearly the property of the school and cannot be misappropriated by others.