28-09-2013, 01:05 PM
PROTECTING TRADE SECRETS
PROTECTING TRADE .ppt (Size: 969.5 KB / Downloads: 15)
General Principles:
Information that has commercial value and that has been scrupulously kept confidential will be considered a trade secret (TS).
Owner will be entitled to court relief against those who have stolen or divulged it in an illegal manner.
Typical Examples In The Software Industry
Computer technology
hardware + software (esp. source code)
whether < patent or copyright protection
algorithms, formulas, data flow charts, specific procedures that are implemented in the software or website
Software design documents
Technical data about product performance
Software development agreements
Pending patent applications
Some Of The Examples Of Trade Secrets
Business plans & strategies
New product names
Financial projections
Marketing plans, unpublished promotional material
Cost & pricing information
Sales data
Customer lists
Info re: new business opportunities
Personnel performance
Secret
“not generally known among or easily accessible to persons within the circles that normally deal with this kind of information”
What is ‘generally known’ in the software industry?
matters of common knowledge
information you find at library, online database, trade journals, patent information, etc
price list on website
graphics & object code of software application you sell off-the-shelf
What is lawful?
2. Reverse engineering
Common practice among software companies: studying competitors' products
to make software that can interoperate with the software being studied
to make a product that will compete with it
E.g. decompile object code to reveal its structure and figure out the interface specifications for interoperability purposes
E.g. look at a program's input and outputs