A trade secret owner can prevent the following groups of people from copying, using and benefiting from its trade secrets or disclosing them to others without permission: people who are automatically bound by a duty of confidentiality not to disclose or use trade secret information, including any employee who routinely comes into contact with the employer’s trade secrets as part of the employee’s job people who acquire a trade secret through improper means such as theft, industrial espionage or bribery people who knowingly obtain trade secrets from people who have no right to disclose them people who learn about a trade secret by accident or mistake, but had reason to know that the information was a protected trade secret, and people who sign nondisclosure agreements (also known as “confidentiality agreements”) promising not to disclose trade secrets without authorization from the owner. This may be the best way for a trade secret owner to establish a duty of confidentiality. Even thou