填空题
Some business information or processes cannot qualify as copyrights, patents, or trade marks. (9) ... Trade secrets include customer lists, pricing information, marketing techniques, management skills, production and engineering techniques, management skills, production and engineering techniques, formulas, research and development, and generally anything that makes a business unique and valuable to a competitor. (10) although know-how usually involves a certain type of trade secrets—those that are more technical, scientific, or managerial in a business. Once trade secrets are released or become part of the public's general knowledge, called the "public domain, " they can be generally used by anyone and cannot be retrieved for the exclusive use of a business. (11) If everyone in the public knows about a trade secret, it loses its value. A business cannot charge another for information that is easily available to the general public. (12) ... (13) ... Normally, a business protects its trade secrets by allowing only a select few employees to know them and by having all employees who use or know trade secrets to agree in a contract never to divulge them. If an employee wrongfully divulges a trade secret, the employer can sue the employee for damages for breach of contract and perhaps a personal injury (tort) committed against the business; the monetary award can be high. Sometimes, businesses would rather use confidentiality agreements with employees to protect trade secrets rather than go through the expense of making some trade secrets patentable since obtaining patents can be costly and time-consuming. Trade secrets can last indefinitely unlike patents; often just the filing of a patent requires disclosure of the innovation and its processes to a government agency for examination. This disclosure can result in the invention being copied illegally or "reverse engineered" by competit6rs. (14) ...
A. A trade secret is of great significance to the growth of a business.
B. Thus, confidentiality is very important in trade secrets.
C. However, they can be protected as valuable knowledge from appropriation by competitors as trade secrets.
D. It is for that reason that Coca-cola's formula is kept a tight secret and only a few people on earth know it.
E. A trade secret, if properly kept confidential, need not ever be disclosed to the public.
F. Anyone who reveals a trade secrete to the public can be punished by law.
G. Sometimes trade secrets are called know-how
H. There are usually no registrations or filing requirements to protect a trade secret under a country's national law