What is a trade secret?

A trade secret is any type of information which is kept secret by its owner and which, by the nature of its secrecy, gives its owner some type of economic value. More specifically, the information must not be generally known by the public, and it must not be something which would be readily ascertainable by the public. The most famous example of a trade secret is probably the original Coca-Cola formula – Coke has worked diligently to keep it secret and derives an economic value from the fact that it, and it alone, knows the recipe.