Trade secret
Commercially valuable information protected by keeping it confidential and binding recipients by contract; a route to protecting pure AI output that copyright will not cover. Protection attaches only if the information derives independent economic value from secrecy and the owner takes reasonable measures to keep it secret (US Defend Trade Secrets Act and state Uniform Trade Secrets Act); publishing the output destroys it.
Defined in 3 GAGE programs, which carry 3 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in AI Literacy & Professional Conduct.
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
Commercially valuable information protected by keeping it confidential and binding recipients by contract; a route to protecting pure AI output that copyright will not cover. Protection attaches only if the information derives independent economic value from secrecy and the owner takes reasonable measures to keep it secret (US Defend Trade Secrets Act and state Uniform Trade Secrets Act); publishing the output destroys it.
Information that derives independent economic value from not being generally known, where the owner has taken reasonable measures to keep it secret, protected under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 and state versions of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Careless AI exposure of a client's trade secret can undermine the "reasonable measures" element the client needs to enforce their own trade secret rights later.
Confidential business information that has value because it is secret and is protected only while the holder takes reasonable steps to keep it secret. Disclosing it into an uncontrolled AI tool can destroy that protection.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first 7 topics of every program are free with a free account.
- AI Output Ownership and Accountability Frameworks · Ethical and Responsible AI and Operational Governance, AI Literacy & Professional Conduct
- Who owns the output: IP, training-data provenance, and the liability chain when AI work goes wrong · Evidence Engineering, AI Governance: Applied Mastery
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.