Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in most economies, particularly in developing countries such as Zimbabwe. SMEs account for the majority of businesses worldwide and are important contributors to job creation and global economic development.^[1]


Many SMES may be unaware that they hold IP or that it has value. This means, many are missing out on opportunities to improve their business and grow.


There may be secrets about your business that give you a competitive advantage over your peers. For example, these secrets may be in the form of customer lists developed after many years of hard work, or they may be formulas, secret recipes, or methods of solving particular kinds of problems. In each of these instances, you may have a “trade secret”. Your trade secret may give you protectable rights as long as the strategic business advantage is a “secret” and gives your business an economic advantage. 


A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, commercial method, or compilation of information that is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable by others, and by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers. For this reason, it becomes very important that you properly protect your trade secrets. Below is some advice to consider:

1. Determine if you should patent it rather than keep it a trade secret. If your secret process can be reversed, engineered, or easily discovered by third parties, you might consider filing a utility or patent application. This will disclose your trade secret to the world in exchange for a potential monopoly right, starting 20 years from the filing date of your patent application. A patent application is often used in this manner – a disclosure in exchange for a monopoly right.  


2. Document your trade secrets. If you decide that trade secrets are right for you, document your trade secret with great detail by recording it on paper or in a word processing program.  


3. Limit the distribution of your trade secret.  Take active steps by implementing internal policies that prevent the trade secret from being generally shared. Make sure each employee and contractor are under strict confidentiality obligations through their employment contract. Keep the trade secret in the hands of very few.

Our world is becoming  more open and inclusive. New ideas are widely shared on public platforms and more research is being published than ever before. In this increasingly complex, highly competitive, hyper-connected world, some things are best kept secret.

[1] World Bank-www.worldbank.org –small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) Finance, Improving SMEs’ access to finance and finding innovative solutions to unlock sources of capital.