Beyond Reality Drama Pvt. Ltd., a production company, conceptualised a television show titled "Jadu Ki Nagri" with strong animation content. The foundational idea was formally documented in a concept note and registered

Answer 3(d) Trade secrets are intellectual property (IP) rights on confidential information which may be sold or licensed. In general, to qualify as a trade secret, the information must be: commercially valuable, because it is secret, be known only to a limited group of persons, and be subject to reasonable steps taken by the rightful holder of the information to keep it secret, including the use of confidentiality agreements for business partners and employees. The unauthorized acquisition, use or disclosure of such secret information in a manner contrary to honest commercial practices by others is regarded as an unfair practice and a violation of the trade secret protection. If a trade secret is well protected, there is no term of protection. Trade secret protection can, in principle, extend indefinitely and in this respect offers an advantage over patent protection, which lasts only for a specified period. It is equally possible that a company may decide not to patent as for instance formula for Coca-Cola which is considered to be one of the best well protected trade secrets. Companies often try to discover one another's trade secrets through lawful methods of reverse engineering on one hand and less lawful methods of industrial espionage on the other. Acts of industrial espionage are generally illegal in their own right under the relevant governing laws. Businesses prevent misuse of confidential information by adopting practical safeguards such as non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality clauses, employee invention-assignment agreements, need-to-know access, password-protected databases, restricted data rooms during negotiations, marking documents as confidential, return/destruction obligations and post-termination confidentiality covenants. It must be noted that trade secrets are not protected by law in the same manner as trademark or patents. They are not registered like other forms of IP and are not creatures of Statute. Instead the judicial system determines the requirements for obtaining trade secrets protection. The TRIPS Agreement under Article 39 protects Trade Secrets in the form of undisclosed information and provides a uniform mechanism for their international protection. TRIPS requires member countries to provide effective remedies for Trade Secret misappropriation in the form of Injunctive relief, damages and provisional relief to prevent infringement and preserve evidence. If a trade secret is acquired by improper means (a somewhat wider concept than "illegal means" but inclusive of such means), the secret is generally deemed to have been misappropriated. Thus, if a trade secret has been acquired via industrial espionage, its acquirer will probably be subject to legal liability for acquiring it improperly. The test for a cause of action for breach of confidence in the common law world is set out in the case of Coco v. A.N. Clark (Engineers) Ltd., (1969) R.P.C. 41 : the information itself must have the necessary quality of confidence about it; that information must have been imparted in circumstances imparting an obligation of confidence; there must be an unauthorized use of that information to the detriment of the party communicating it. The "quality of confidence" highlights the fact that trade secrets are a legal concept. With sufficient effort or through illegal acts (such as break and enter), competitors can usually obtain trade secrets. However, so long as the owner of the trade secret demonstrates that reasonable efforts have been made to keep the information confidential, the information remains a trade secret and is legally protected as such. Conversely, trade secret owners who do not demonstrate reasonable effort at protecting confidential information, risk losing the trade secret even if the information is obtained by competitors illegally. In order for the information to be protected as a Trade Secret, the Information must be i) Secret ii) have Commercial Value and iii) Subject to Safe keeping. Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) and Confidentiality Agreements (CA) are basic agreements for protection of Trade Secrets under the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Confidentiality Clauses in agreements between business entities or between the business entity and the stakeholder are also inserted to protect Trade Secrets. Indian Courts have upheld Trade Secret protection under Contract law, Copyright law, principles of equity and common law action of Breach of Confidence. A pertinent case law wherein the Bombay High Court highlighted the importance for protection of Trade Secrets and Confidential information was the landmark case of Zee Telefilms Ltd. v. Sundial Communications Pvt. Ltd. 2003 (5) BomCR 404 , wherein the Court outlined the contours of what constitutes confidential information and its subsequent breach. It noted: (i) The information must be such that the owner believes that its release would be injurious to him and advantageous to his competitors (ii) Owner must believe that the information is of confidential nature and is not already in public domain (iii) Owner's belief of the two aforesaid heads must be reasonable (iv) Information must be judged in the light of the usages and practices of the trade concerned. Court ruled in favour of the Plaintiff as it was unmistakably a breach of confidence.