Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2007

OCLC FAST subject heading

Intellectual property

Abstract

When an employee discloses an employer's trade secrets to the public over the Internet, does our current trade secret framework appropriately address the consequences of that disclosure? What ought to be the rule that governs whether the trade secret owner has lost not only the protection status for the secret, but also any remedies against use by third parties? Should the ease with which the Internet permits instant and mass disclosure of secrets be taken into consideration in assessing the fairness of a rule that calls for immediate loss of the trade secret upon disclosure? Given that trade secret law is intended to regulate the moral and ethical pulse of competitive commercial behavior, this Article sets out to explore the problem presented by trade secret Internet disclosures and to identify whether, at least in some circumstances, it may be possible to retain trade secret status after a disclosure.

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