Trade secret
Updated: 06/30/2020 by Computer Hope
A trade secret is a design, information, pattern, or other workflow that a company has developed to make their business work properly. As these processes are generally proprietary and can give a company an edge against their competitors, they make an effort to keep them a secret.
A trade secret is one form of intellectual property. Often, when companies have trade secrets, they make their employees sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and a non-compete clause. This agreement and clause state the employee will not divulge proprietary information to anyone outside of the company. Sometimes, they even prevent an employee from working at a similar business once they leave the company.