It’s always better to know than not to know, right? Wrong!
There are things you better know. Where you left your keys, shoe sizes of your kids, name of your spouse, these sort of things.
But what about secrets? Sure, secrets are interesting, especially if they are not yours.
What about Trade Secrets? Well, the plot thickens. If they are yours, then you better know them. But if they are not yours, they sometimes better be left unheard. That knowledge can turn from a tempting insight into a legal and strategic liability.
The Trade Secret Trap
On one hand, you just hit the jackpot! You now know something valuable that someone has tried to keep in secret. Or maybe it’s not even a secret, but obtained benignly, like trying a sample of your competitor’s product. Chances are you can use it to your advantage, and you did not need to spend anything to obtain it, no R&D expenses, no time, nothing.
On the other hand, remember the NDA you signed just before the meeting? The one that says that you can not use anything you hear in the meeting indefinitely?
Now you are in a twist, and you only have yourself to blame. You know something new, but you can not use it. Not now, not ever. It belongs to someone else.
You can not use it, you can not let your Product team use it, and you can not direct your R&D team to recreate it, you are stuck!
What about just waiting for your R&D team to independently recreate it? Good luck convincing someone of this cosmic coincidence.
Why Sometimes Not Knowing Is Better
- Knowing a competitor’s trade secret might seem like a jackpot—but legal NDAs can make it unusable forever
- Using or even indirectly leveraging that info can backfire, causing costly legal risks and stalling your R&D
- The safest path is strategic IP management to avoid “stepping on landmines” in the first place
Now, are you really better off knowing someone else’s Trade Secret?
The best way to survive a landmine is not to step onto it. If you are a founder and want to understand how not to trigger a Bouncing Betty, our IP solutions for startups include strategic guidance on navigating competitive intelligence safely – let’s talk.
If you are an investor evaluating potential deals, our IP due diligence services help you identify these hidden legal risks before they become expensive problems – let’s talk too.
