Trade Secrets

Usually consists of information used in manufacture or a process that is indeed secret, e.g., secret recipes, (though the secret can have been independently developed by more than one holder.) There is a conflict in the understanding of the nature of trade secrets as a legal right in different legal systems; in the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia it is a function of the law of confidences and regarded as primarily a contractual right. In civil law systems and in the United States it is typically regarded as a form of intellectual property in-of-itself. See Know-How, Business Secrets, Bigot List.

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