Trade secrets are more important, and trade secret litigation is more common: 7 questions to ask yourself about protecting your company

In today's business environment, trade secrets have become much more important, and trade secret litigation much more common. The trade secret environment we are living in is very different from that of ten years ago, or even five years ago.

First, a bit of background. Disclosing confidential technology generally prevents its future protection as a trade secret, but for many decades the tradeoff − describe your secret and in exchange, obtain a patent − was generally regarded as worthwhile.