Trade secret protection can cover things patents and copyrights can't — formulas, processes, customer lists, internal methods — but only if the information actually meets the legal definition, and only if the business takes real steps to keep it secret.
It has to derive value from being secret
The core requirement is that the information has independent economic value specifically because it isn't publicly known — information that's freely available or easily reverse-engineered generally doesn't qualify, no matter how a business labels it internally.
Reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy are required
Courts look for concrete steps — NDAs, restricted access, marked confidential documents, security protocols — as evidence the business actually treated the information as secret. Without these, a trade secret claim is hard to sustain even if the information itself would otherwise qualify.
Trade secrets don't expire, but they don't survive disclosure either
Unlike a patent, trade secret protection can theoretically last forever — but it disappears the moment the information becomes public, whether through a leak, reverse engineering, or independent discovery by someone else.
Documenting your trade secret protections
Businesses relying on trade secret protection benefit from having their confidentiality agreements, access controls, and internal policies properly drafted and documented — that documentation is often what determines whether a claim holds up if information is ever misappropriated.