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lazide • yesterday at 9:03 PM • 2 replies • view on HN

It is not that simple. To have that protection, it needs to be treated (and protected) like an actual secret.

It’s why the nominal ‘top secret’ coke formula is stored in a giant vault.

If everyone at the company has access (and it’s a big company), good luck having that protection.

Replies

shagie • yesterday at 9:29 PM

https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/wipo-guide-to-trade-se... is likely a good source for the "what constitutes trade secret"

    To enjoy trade secret protection, the above mentioned three criteria (i.e., secrecy, commercial value because of the secrecy, and reasonable steps taken by trade secret holders to maintain secrecy) must be complied with (see section 2.1 for the criteria to be met).

    Trade secrets can be protected for an unlimited period of time, unless they cease to meet the criteria for trade secret protection.

    Trade secret holders can seek protection only where unauthorized disclosure, acquisition or use of their trade secrets is made in a manner contrary to honest commercial practice. In other words, they do not enjoy the type of “exclusive rights” that are generally available for other categories of IP. This will be discussed in the next section.
One of the things there though is that trade secrets don't have exclusive rights. If you write code and then distribute the application, trade secrets don't protect it anymore.

There's also a section on trade secrets and digital objects... which includes code ... and that gets into other challenges.

https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/wipo-guide-to-trade-se...

    Copyright is another form of intellectual property protection available to code and algorithms. However, it should be noted that certain jurisdictions do not permit an owner to assert both trade secret and copyright, especially if the copyrighted software discloses a majority of the source code or the “proprietary” portions.  In the Capricorn case, the court held that the source code owner was barred from asserting trade secret protection because the code was also registered as a copyright, and thus available to the public. Therefore, the source code owner should carefully consider the pros and cons of each type of protection.
... it also has guidance on trade secrets and LLMs.

https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/wipo-guide-to-trade-se...

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andriy_koval • yesterday at 9:09 PM

claude says one needs to take "reasonable steps", which includes asking employee to sign NDA, setting access control, and putting TRADE SECRET disclosure in source files: https://ipwatchdog.com/2025/12/02/fourth-circuit-clarifies-r...