trade secret

noun

: something (such as a formula) which has economic value to a business because it is not generally known or easily discoverable by observation and for which efforts have been made to maintain secrecy

Examples of trade secret in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As OpenAI prepares for a potential fourth-quarter IPO and fights Elon Musk’s xAI over allegations of stealing trade secrets, CEO Sam Altman has his hands full. —Jacqueline Munis, Fortune, 5 Feb. 2026

Last month, a federal judge allowed PleasrDAO’s civil case to move toward trial, finding that the album could qualify as a trade secret unlawfully retained by Shkreli. —Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 3 Feb. 2026

Ding stole more than 2,000 pages of confidential information containing Google’s AI trade secrets from the company’s network and uploaded them to his personal Google cloud account between May 2022 and April 2023, according to evidence presented at trial. —Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 31 Jan. 2026

The trade secrets contained detailed information about the architecture of Google's custom Tensor Processing Unit chips and the company's graphics processing unit systems, according to the DOJ. —Jennifer Elias, CNBC, 30 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1825, in the meaning defined above

Legal Definition

trade secret

noun

trade se·​cret

: a formula, process, device, or item of information used by a business that has economic value because it is not generally known or easily discovered by observation or examination and for which reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy have been made

Note: Trade secrets are a form of intellectual property. Many states have enacted laws which create an action for damages or injunctive relief against misappropriation of trade secrets by improper means. Information contained in a patent is not protected as a trade secret.