A training period can indicate that business information is a trade secret that cannot be easily disclosed.

A chain of stores and stands selling tea beverages entered into an agreement with a company that operates stands selling beverages and formed a partnership to establish a stand in a mall. After the parties fell into a dispute, an agreement was signed to dissolve the partnership, which the chain claims was violated by the company that established additional stands selling tea beverages while stealing the chain’s trade secrets.

The court ruled that the beverage recipes do not constitute a trade secret because they are knowledge that is in the public domain. A trade secret is business information, of any kind, that is not in the public domain and that cannot be lawfully disclosed easily by others and that gives its owner a business advantage over competitors. One indication of the existence of business information that cannot be readily disclosed is the extent of the training required to teach it. Here, the beverage recipes were indeed developed by the chain owner, but these are recipes that are already advertised on the business’s menu and can be learned from various websites on the Internet, so it cannot be claimed that they are not in the public domain and therefore they do not constitute trade secrets eligible for protection.