Just selling your product can legally kill your trade secret, even if nobody actually figured out how your secret works.
Most businesses believe a trade secret is safe as long as it remains hidden, but this study reveals a hidden 'ready ascertainability' rule. If a product on the market could theoretically be reverse-engineered, the law may treat the secret as expired the moment the product is sold, regardless of whether anyone has actually figured it out yet.
Trade Secret Law's On-Sale Bar
SSRN · 6506705
<p>The on-sale bar is a well-established rule in patent law. Once an invention has been placed “on sale” for over a year, it cannot thereafter be patented. Trade secret law, at first glance, is different. Trade secret law can indefinitely protect information relating to a product, even after it has been marketed. Consider the famous example of the Coca-Cola formula. The formula is still claimed as a trade secret, even though the soft drink has been sold to the public for over a century. If emplo