5 Elements Necessary for Effective Automated Trade Secret Asset Management:
1 - Taxonomy. The trade secrets must be classified into some easily understood taxonomy. Trade secrets existing as a large �blob� of undifferentiated knowledge is unacceptable The classification system must be easy to understand so employees do not need to be trained to use it. Trade Secret Examiner uses the Subject/Format/Product taxonomy pioneered by the Trade Secret Office, Inc. This is a formalization of the way employees talk about corporate information already. "Has anybody seen the Engineering Specifications for the Model 5750?" Engineering is the Subject, Specifications is the Format, and the Model 5750 is the Product.
2 - Scoring. The trade secrets must be scored by some method that reflects legal standards and is easy to use. All trade secrets are not created the same. Some are better than others. The legal standard for trade secrets is the six factors from the First Restatement of Torts, to be considered by the courts in determining trade secret status. Trade Secret Examiner uses a 1-to-5 scoring mechanism in which each of the six factors is scored from 1 (low) to 5 (high). Employees are already familiar with 1-to-5 scoring, from grades in school to film review ratings.
3 - Metadata. The automated trade secret asset management system should only store metadata about the trade secrets, NOT the trade secrets themselves. Were the system to store the trade secret information, it would become a security risk. Further, putting the trade secret information into the system exposes more people to the trade secret information and reduces the score for one of the six factors, to �what extent the trade secret is known inside the company.� A method of asset management should not reduce the value or security of the assets themselves. Like a library card catalog, which contains no books, the trade secret asset management system should contain no trade secrets. Trade Secret Examiner has been structured to disallow the entry of trade secret information.
4 - History. The automated trade secret asset management system must retain all the metadata about trade secrets, and be able to reproduce the metadata in effect at any time in the past. The period of interest in a trade secret litigation may be two or three years in the past. One cannot litigate a case based on today's metadata, one must litigate based on the metadata in effect during the period of interest. Further, the historical treatment of the trade secret -- proving reasonable security measures have been taken -- will be an issue at trial. The system must retain all the old versions of any trade secret metadata, and be able to reproduce the metadata as it existed at any prior time. Trade Secret Examiner retains all metadata indefinitely, and can reproduce metadata in effect in the past for any prior date.
5 - Proof. The automated trade secret asset management system must contain methods for proving that historical metadata is contemporaneous to the period of interest, and is not a construct prepared for trial. Trade Secret Examiner uses modern hashcode blockchaining technology to provide a court-accepted method of establishing the existence of metadata at all past times.
The TRADE SECRET EXAMINER® encapsulates all 5 elements in a software program that is easy to use and easy to deploy.