Unlike trademarks, copyrights, and patents, there is no formal registration process for trade secrets. The legal protections afforded to trade secrets are somewhat unique in that a trade secret becomes such at the moment that it is created. Furthermore, it remains subject to legal protection only so long as the information is actually kept a secret from others. Unlike a patent or other device of intellectual property (IP) law, the holder of a trade secret receives no legal monopoly over the use of the secret-rather, the protection depends upon the holder's own efforts to maintain the secrecy of the information. However, if another party gains knowledge of the secret through its own good faith efforts, or via reverse engineering, trade secret protection is lost.
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