The Minnesota Uniform Trade Secrets Act is captured statutorily in Minnesota Statutes Chapter 325, et seq. In as much as the Chapter 325 is brief, the case law applying the chapter is deep.
To constitute a trade secret, and hence gain significant protections against use of your information by competitors, a business's information must be detailed. The degree of detail is a very difficult question to answer. Appellate law has consistently affirmed that general categories of information are insufficient in categorization to ascend to trade secret status. Such categorization has included research and development information, profit margins, and design procedures. On the other hand, specific customer lists with information only obtained through a company's diligence, expense, and time have been held to be confidential and protected.
In assessing your company's information, businesses should keep an eye on detail. Erring on the side of classifying your information as confidential trade secret can help protect against disclosure to competitors or theft by your own employees, but defending that classification requires you to really look at what separates you from the competition.
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