The possibilities and limits of trade secrets to protect data shared between firms in agricultural and food sectors

Abstract

Both public policy and business management are increasingly interested in how to manage trade secrets. One of the driving forces is the growing significance of data as an asset, as ‘oil of the 21st century'. Trade secrets are often seen as the major Intellectual Property (IP) tool for protecting data. There is also the understanding that the need to share data is increasing to allow for new types of innovation. This paper seeks to understand how data sharing practices and the use of trade secrets are evolving in the agricultural industries. Using explorative empirical data from four in-depth case studies, the paper develops a framework for data sharing practices, value sharing, and trade secrets use. We find that current data sharing practices pool around two scenarios, where data is not shared or shared only with limited partners (hence closed) and there are differences whether value created from the data is shared. We conclude that a nuanced view on the use of trade secrets in data sharing is mandated for both IP/data managers and scholars analysing the topic.