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

In July, Apple sued OpenAI in federal court, alleging the theft of hardware trade secrets. — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 15 Oct. 2026

Apple sued OpenAI in July, alleging trade secret theft, a claim OpenAI denied. — Kif Leswing,jonathan Vanian, CNBC, 15 Oct. 2026

The allegations add another layer to a growing trade secrets dispute between the two technology companies. — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 14 Oct. 2026

On Tuesday, OpenAI and Anthropic urged that restrictive non-disclosure agreements should be required of external evaluators to prevent leaks of trade secrets, Reuters reported. — Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 14 Oct. 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.