Risk Management For Trade Secrets As Corporate Assets Under Indian Legal Framework
Aishwarya K, Advocate
ABSTRACT
Trade secrets are intellectual property of conditional nature. Their protection is dependent on demonstrable steps taken to preserve their secrecy, existence of duty of trust between the parties who are privy to the trade secrets and proof these two conditions. This is different from other statutory monopolies and these conditionality makes them commercially fragile. This paper argues this instability of trade secrets which stems not from their inherent nature but from their dependency on governance framework.
This study reconceptualises trade secrets from an intangible asset to a risk- exposed corporate capital by examining judicial practices, and economic theories like appropriability and information cost theory. The structural vulnerabilities associated with trade secrets are identified to assess the threat of asset durability even before litigation.
The central claim advanced through this paper is that the commercial value of trade secrets can be increased or retained not through litigation but through structured practical framework as part of governance mechanism. This is categorised across different stages and circumstances in which trade secrets are commercially exploited including but not limited to method of dissemination of information and documentation infrastructure. This reframing of trade secrets as corporate assets of commercial value exposes the probability of profit maximisation of this unique intellectual property within Indian Commercial Practice.
Keywords: Trade Secrets; Confidential Information; Appropriability; Evidentiary Burden; Risk Management; Asset Value.
