Answers · Pricing
What does it cost to set up a trade secret protection program?
Updated June 2026
The short answer
Almost nobody publishes pricing for trade secret protection programs, so any specific number you find deserves skepticism. The honest calibration: this work is scoped like other consulting engagements, and at ipCapital Group engagements run from roughly $5,000 for focused analyses to $250,000 and beyond for multi-year enterprise programs, with most first engagements landing as fixed-scope five-figure projects.
The cost question is really five smaller questions: what secrets you have, how they are classified, how they are controlled, how people are trained, and how the controls are monitored. Each scales with headcount and the number of secrets, not with revenue.
Why there is no published market price
Trade secret programs are the least commoditized service in commercial IP. The strong public sources, WIPO and USPTO guidance among them, describe what a program contains but say nothing about cost, and the firms that build programs scope each one individually. The variation is genuine: a 40-person company protecting one core process and a global manufacturer protecting thousands of secrets across a dozen plants are not buying versions of the same project.
A useful rule: anyone quoting a flat program price before learning your secret count, headcount, site footprint, and existing controls is guessing. The scoping conversation is short, but it has to happen first.
The five cost components
The core steps of a trade secret program begin with inventory and identification: determining which business information, technical knowledge, processes, and know-how the company treats as confidential and competitively valuable. Next is classification: organizing those assets by relative value, sensitivity, and risk so the company can apply practical levels of protection. Third is controls: putting appropriate access, handling, physical, digital, and contractual safeguards in place, with legal documents prepared by counsel. After that, training: ensuring employees understand what must be protected, how to handle sensitive information, and what obligations apply during and after employment. Finally, monitoring: periodically reviewing and updating the program as business operations, personnel, products, and risks change. The first two steps generally require the most upfront effort, while the last three establish the operating framework for maintaining the program over time.
Why under-spending here is different
Trade secret protection exists in law only if you took reasonable measures to keep the information secret. A program that exists on paper but not in practice can mean the asset is legally unprotectable exactly when you need to enforce it, because courts examine the measures you actually took. That makes the program an asset-creation exercise, since without it the secrets may not qualify as property at all. What counts as reasonable in your situation is a legal question for your counsel; building the operational program that meets the standard is consulting work.
ipCG builds the inventory, classification, and operational program, and works alongside your counsel on policies and contracts. We are consultants, not lawyers, and the engagement starts the way all of ours do: a free discovery call, then a fixed-scope proposal.
Related questions
Are NDAs by themselves enough?
They are a foundation, but courts commonly look for layered measures: identification, access controls, training, and exit procedures, in addition to contracts. An NDA covering secrets nobody has inventoried protects very little in practice.
How long does setup take?
It scales with the organization. The inventory phase is usually the longest, since it runs on interview schedules. Single-site companies commonly complete setup in weeks; multi-site global programs run months.
What does the program cost after setup?
Meaningfully less. Ongoing cost is a training cadence, an audit cycle, and updates as products and staffing change, and many companies fold those into existing compliance routines rather than running them as standalone spend.
Should we just patent the important things instead?
Patents and secrets protect different things on different terms: patents publish the invention in exchange for a 20-year right, secrets last as long as secrecy does but protect nothing if reverse engineering is easy. Most serious technology companies need both, and deciding which asset goes in which bucket is part of the program.
Start with the inventory
Most companies discover they hold more secrets and fewer protections than they assumed. Tell us about your organization and we will scope the program to it. The discovery call is free.
Talk with Our TeamRelated
ipCapital Group is a consultancy, not a law firm, and nothing on this page is legal advice. Dollar figures on this page are typical market ranges for professional IP services, drawn from published sources and industry experience across a variety of providers. They are not an ipCG quote or rate card; every ipCG engagement is individually scoped and priced. See how our pricing works.