Identifying trade secrets: strategic process and challenges in the UK

Abstract

Trade Secrets (TS) constitute important elements in intellectual property (IP) portfolios, securing competitive advantage by preserving critical innovations and other confidential data. Identifying TS, however, creates numerous challenges, including a lack of established processes of TS identification at the organisational level in the UK and the absence of comprehensive academic studies. This study, therefore, aims to define a methodological process for TS identification within UK organisations. Leveraging a sequential qualitative mixed-method approach grounded in Knowledge Management (KM) theory, this research analyses 52 legal cases on TS misappropriation and 12 interviews with industry professionals. Findings highlight challenges in TS identification, introducing a four-step UVRIP framework as a strategic tool for organisations to assess informational assets based on usefulness, value, rarity, imitability and protection, enriching discourse on TS protection and management, IP audit processes and KM theory and offering theoretical and practical contributions.