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Independent Economic Value Due to Secrecy

What is meant by "independent economic value due to secrecy?"

To be a trade secret the information must have some value due to its secrecy. This criteria is almost always proven when secrecy is proven, since companies typically do not put forth effort in a lawsuit to protect and recover control of valueless information.

What are "wealth creating" and "wealth preserving" information?

The value of the information may be wealth creating such as your customer list and customer preferences. The value of the information may also be wealth preserving such as knowing which mistakes to avoid. Perhaps your company made a mistake in a marketing strategy. Knowing to avoid the mistake is of value, since it preserves wealth. Your company stands to gain competitively if your competitors make the same mistake. Wealth preserving information and wealth creating information should both be closely guarded secrets.

About the Author:

N. Paul Friederichs, founder, started practice as a patent attorney in 1992 at a major Minneapolis, Minnesota law firm where he was the highest performing associate. In 1993, he started and developed Friederichs Law Firm with his father. Throughout this time Paul�s experience was heavily weighted toward litigation. He served such clients as Tonka Toys, American Harvest and Boston Medical.

He can be reached at http://www.angenehm.com/

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