You don't get how trade secrets work. What makes them enforceable, actionable.

The classic example was during the 90s. A company was building a new factory, and as a result, it was open to the air. A competitor, wanting to legally discover how the manufacturing process of the company was orchestrated, flew over the construction site, taking photos, pictures.

The competitor claimed, that they obtained such information without trickery. The company said that they had taken reasonable precautions, to conceal their manufacturing process, with employee NDAs, and security around the construction site, yet ... that there was absolutely no precaution which could be taken to protect from plane or satellite, and thus, the took all reasonable precautions. That the plane + photos were akin to someone sneaking into the factory, and taking photos as well.

The company won, their trade secret was protected.

The point of this illustrative story, is that reasonable attempts at secrecy of things such as manufacturing processes must be attempted.

A key part of a trade secret is in its name, secret. You cannot keep a secret in public, and even if you do, for a brief period of time, you are not attempting to conceal it if everyone and their dog may look at it. Nothing you sell to a consumer is a trade secret. Nothing. Not a single thing.

You may have a trade secret in how that product was made, but you do not have a trade secret in how that product fits together. At all. A schematic of a circuit board is not a trade secret, and this is the context you started this conversation on.

To speak to this, if anyone, ever, discovers how to take apart and repair this glass trackpad you discuss, there is no trade secret, and no judge will ever ever help anyone enforce protections on the same.

To put it another way, and going back to the example at start of this message, if you hold tours of your factory with trade secret manufacturing processes in it, you no longer have trade secret manufacturing processes. Your competitors may tour it at whim, as part of the tour group, and use such information to derive and copy your no longer enforceable trade secrets.

That's simply how it works.

And there's nothing more public than selling something to the public.

I think you are confused, because Apple may claim it's a 'trade secret', in how they manufacturer said glass trackpad. But the part in consumer hands is not a trade secret. You can put the blasted thing under an x-ray, an electron microscope, and yes these are valid ways to examine things, and there's literally even remotely a trade secret to enforce from this angle.

This, any schematics provides are not going to invalidate what already exists.

I won't bother looking back at this any more, for two reasons. First, it's falling off the first page of my comments I look at, for replies. And second, your over the top, absurd attack on a correct use of the word 'valid' is quite odd, and smacks of a lack of good faith.

You've said your part, I've said mine, and I don't see much value beyond my extended attempt to discuss my reasoning re: trade secrets, how I believe they work, etc. above.

Oh, one final note. I've noticed some larger corporations, and some dark corners of the legal profession attempt to shift the line in terms of rights. We've seen absurd attempts at this in the last 20 years, and we've seen industry practices which are in effect for 10 to 20 years, in terms of IP shot down again and again.

Part of me suspects you may have fallen into a trap, where perhaps Apple claims something they cannot claim, such as extending trade secrets to devices held in people's hands. If they are, they will fail in this, unless there is a deep legislative change, and even then I doubt it won't be kicked, and you should not listen to such absurd claims.