Tag: Trade Secrets
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Red Teaming Your Program: How to Test for Weak Spots
Most programs fail in quiet ways. Not because the idea was bad, but because no one tried to break it early. Red teaming is the habit of attacking your own work before the world does. You look for cracks on purpose. You test the edges. You assume something will go wrong and you go find…
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M&A Readiness: Data Rooms for Trade Secret Programs
If someone wanted to buy your company tomorrow, could you prove what you actually own? That single question decides whether deals move fast, stall, or fall apart. In mergers and acquisitions, trade secrets often matter more than patents. Your code, models, data pipelines, processes, and know-how are usually the real value. But here is the…
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Governance Dashboard: KPIs for Trade Secret Health
Most founders talk about patents. Very few talk about trade secrets. Yet for many startups, trade secrets are the real gold. Your code logic. Your model tweaks. Your internal process. The quiet details that make your product hard to copy. The problem is simple. You cannot protect what you do not track. Trade secrets do…
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UX, Roadmaps, and Playbooks: What to Patent vs Keep Quiet
Most founders do not lose because their idea was bad, they lose because they shared the wrong things and stayed quiet about the right ones. UX flows, product roadmaps, and internal playbooks often carry more real value than the core tech, yet they sit in a gray area where teams either overshare or overhide. Some…
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Manufacturing & Supply Chain: Keeping Process Know-How Secret
Most startups think patents are about the product you can see. The device. The app. The final thing a customer touches. That is a mistake. In manufacturing and supply chains, the real value often lives somewhere else. It lives in the steps. The order. The timing. The tiny choices that make something cheaper, faster, stronger,…
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Patents + Trade Secrets Together: Layered IP Strategy
Most founders think patents and trade secrets are an either-or choice, but the strongest companies never pick just one. They use both at the same time to build layers of protection around what really matters. A patent protects what must be shared with the world, while trade secrets protect what should never be seen. Together,…
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Litigation Basics: DTSA Claims, Remedies, and Defenses
If you are building something valuable, someone will want it. Sometimes they copy it. Sometimes they walk out the door with it. Sometimes they pretend it was theirs all along. That is where trade secret law comes in, and that is where the Defend Trade Secrets Act, or DTSA, matters more than most founders realize.…
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Trade Secret Valuation: Showing Business Impact to Investors
Most founders know they have something special. A clever system. A smart process. A quiet edge that competitors cannot see. What many do not know is how to explain that value to investors in a way that feels real, solid, and worth betting on. This is where trade secrets come in. A trade secret is…
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Global Issues: Sharing Secrets Across Borders Safely
When your company grows past one country, your ideas start to travel too. Code gets shared. Designs get sent. Partners overseas see how things work. That is exciting. It is also dangerous if you do not protect what you are building first. This article is about how founders share ideas across borders without losing control…
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Pricing, Algorithms, and Customer Lists: Are They Protectable?
If you are building a real company, you already know this truth: your edge is not your logo or your website. Your edge is how you price, how your product thinks, and who trusts you enough to buy. These are the parts that make or break a startup. They are also the parts founders worry…