MASTERCLASS Patents for Entrepreneurs – Part 8: Trade Secrets
Ola Wassvik frames trade secrets not as a legal afterthought but as an operational discipline: information only stays a trade secret if you can prove you treated it like one. The key shift: stop assuming trade secrets protect themselves and start asking "have we taken reasonable steps to keep this secret," because that single test is what separates an actual trade secret from information you simply never got around to patenting.
Key basics
A trade secret is information that isn't generally known or readily accessible in your sector, that has commercial value because it's secret, and that you've taken reasonable steps to protect. It only survives if it's treated like one: messy folders and open Slack channels can weaken or destroy it just as easily as a competitor could. The core discipline is simple: identify the secret, restrict it to a need-to-know basis, document it, and enforce it. The biggest risk is almost never espionage; it's accidental disclosure by salespeople and founders who didn't realize what they were sharing, which is why training people beats locking everything down.
Strategy
The second-biggest leak happens when people leave, so exit routines should restate confidentiality obligations and recover company material, with employment agreements clearly covering IP ownership under the applicable national law. Your most valuable IP may never be patented at all: manufacturing yield, tuning, datasets, negative results, and scale-up know-how are often a deep tech company's real treasure, and the best secrets stay invisible on the product side. Patent the claims a competitor could reverse-engineer and keep the hard-won execution knowledge behind them secret, since patents without trade secrets are weak. Treat employment agreements, NDAs, and supplier terms with the same seriousness as your shareholder agreement, keep a paper trail for every disclosure, and maintain a clean trade secret register recording what it is, who owns it, where it lives, and who can access it. Use need-to-know and role-based access, since the fewer people who touch a secret, the stronger it is, and remember that trade secrets don't create a monopoly: protection stops unlawful acquisition, use, and disclosure, but not independent development or lawful reverse engineering.
About the Host
Ola Wassvik is CCO and co-founder of Lightbringer, a serial entrepreneur, and an M.Sc. in Engineering Physics. Before Lightbringer, he spent 20+ years as a tech entrepreneur, including as CTO and co-founder of Flatfrog.
Across that time he's managed over 300 patent families and helped raise more than €84 million for deep tech ventures, giving him a founder's-eye view of how patent strategy actually plays out in the room with investors, competitors, and boards.
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FAQ
What's the single most important thing to remember about trade secrets?
You need to take reasonable steps to keep it secret. Without proof of active protective measures, a court won't recognize it as a trade secret, no matter how sensitive the information actually is.
Why is accidental leakage the biggest risk, not espionage?
Almost every leak happens because someone didn't realize what they were sharing was secret, in an unguarded sales meeting, a general Slack channel, or a candid answer to a tough question. Training people on what is and isn't secret prevents far more damage than locking everything down.
How do I protect trade secrets when an employee leaves?
Restate their confidentiality obligations, recover company material, and remind them explicitly which know-how they can't bring to their next job. If they never knew what counted as a trade secret, you can't later claim you took reasonable steps to protect it.
How do I decide what to patent versus what to keep secret?
If a competitor could spend real time and money reverse-engineering it from your product, patent it. If it's invisible on the product side and would take someone years to recreate independently, keep it a trade secret instead.
Do trade secrets stop competitors from copying me?
Quarterly: map the terrain, decide where to file, monitor competitors, and adapt.
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD CONTACT A PATENT ATTORNEY IF YOU NEED A FORMAL ASSESSMENT OF PATENT INFRINGEMENT OR FREEDOM TO OPERATE.
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