A game of secrets

As the stakes get higher in the world of trade secrets, legal teams need to act swiftly and adopt a strategic mindset to ensure they are on the winning side, finds Muireann Bolger.

Trade secrets protection has become to resemble a strategic game, with each move requiring a legal team with the insights and boldness required to win the best outcome for their clients.

Coca-Cola’s recipe, the Big Mac’s sauce, Google’s algorithm: all have captured the public imagination as definitive, even iconic trade secrets, with safeguards posing insurmountable obstacles to anyone who might dare some foolhardy theft.

But the reality facing most trade secret owners is quite different. Increasingly, these intangible assets, especially in the fast-moving tech sectors, are becoming easier to access, infiltrate—and to steal.