CompuServe Messages

Actually, works embodying trade secrets can be copyrighted — the Copyright Office has procedures for making the necessary deposit of the copyrighted material with deletions necessary to protect trade secrets. Trade secret protection is granted by state law and, roughly speaking, is any information (processes, techniques, ingredients, customer lists, etc.) a business possesses that has economic value by virtue of its not being generally known. Copyrights are granted under federal law and protect any work of original authorship. A deposit of the copyrighted material is necessary to get a registration, but in the case of software and the like, one can make a deposit that conceals trade secrets but still is sufficient to prove the necessary "original authorship." Darron