Trade Secret Programs
Protect what you can’t patent.
Not everything valuable should be patented. Some of your most critical competitive advantages that cannot be reverse engineered, such as manufacturing processes and equipment settings, algorithms, testing data, customer data models, supplier relationships are better protected as trade secrets. In the AI era, trade secrets have become a ‘superpower’ to provide proprietary data corpuses to fuel private AI models. But ‘trade secret’ is only an enforceable IP asset if you actually treat it like one. ipCG builds the programs, policies, and infrastructure that make trade secret protection real and defensible.
Typical Outputs
- Complete trade secret inventory
- Protection program blueprint
- Access control framework
- Compliance monitoring system
Every engagement is custom-scoped. Learn more →
Why it matters
Trade secrets represent an estimated $5 trillion in US corporate value, yet most companies have no formal program to identify, classify, or protect them. A single employee departure without proper trade secret controls can erase years of competitive advantage overnight. Our programs have protected critical assets for companies from startups to Fortune 100 enterprises.
Core Workstreams
Comprehensive trade secret audit across all business functions
Tiered classification system with access controls and documentation standards
Employee onboarding/offboarding protocols and NDA frameworks
Ongoing monitoring and compliance program design