Trade Secrets
Video from USPTO. Watch on YouTube.
What you'll get
A three-minute USPTO explainer on trade secrets, which can be anything from a recipe or a manufacturing process to a customer list, and on the three things that make information one: it has value because it is not generally known, others who cannot legitimately get it would want it, and its owner takes reasonable steps to keep it secret. It says finding and protecting your own trade secrets is the company's job, which matters for a maker whose edge lives in how the product is made rather than in a design that could be patented.
Do this week
List every process, formula, supplier or customer list that gives you an edge, and next to each write one step you will take to keep it secret, such as limiting who has it or marking it confidential.