Something that a person or company wishes to keep secret to maintain the health of their business. In principle, almost any apparatus, formula, or compilation of information that is of some value in conducting a business can qualify as a trade secret. In the UK, trade secrets are protected by the law of confidentiality. To keep trade secrets protected, a company must assert that the information is confidential and ensure that anyone told about it signs a non-disclosure agreement. If they then tell anyone about it, this is a breach of confidence and legal action can be taken against them. Note, however, that there is no legal protection against someone independently developing the same information or reverse engineering it. There is no time limit on how long something may be a trade secret. In this respect, trade secrecy is quite different from patent and copyright.