Imagine if your top employee left your company. The employee had learned every major area of your company. You can stop this individual if your company protected its business information properly under the trade secret laws. Proper protection requires action today to be ready for tomorrow. Under the Uniform Trade Secret Act information must not be generally known, not readily ascertainable, have independant economic value due to secrecy, and be the subject of reasonable efforts to protect secrecy.
Information is protectable as long as the information fits the definition of trade secrets.
This can be moments or decades. Trade secret law prevents wrongful taking of confidential or secret information. Independant development and reverse engineering by another party are defenses to claims of trade secret theft. Trade secret protection is a state right. A vast majority of states, including Minnesota, have adopted the Uniform Trade Secret Act.