營業秘密是企業最重要的資產之一。當有價值的資訊能符合法律要件時，這些資訊就能夠在法律下成為被保護之標的，稱為營業秘密。企圖保護的資訊不是自動地就能在法律上具有地位，而是需要在管理實務中建立合理努力的保護制度，且其實務受限於司法的見解。美國是最早立法保護有價值資訊的國家，除了專利、商標與著作權外，成為另一種型態的智慧財產。由於採行普通法之故，美國營業秘密的管理實務嚴格地受到各級法院司法審判見解的影響，尤其是其上訴法院的見解。本研究目的是以管理的觀點，由重要判例的見解中指明影響營業秘密保護實務運作的議題。

Trade secret is some kind of the most important assets in enterprises. Once the valuable information conforms to legal requirements, then they become the protected objective matters, named trade secret, under law. Trade secret is are not automatically possessed the legal position, but constructed by the reasonable effort to protect under managerial practice, and also depended on the opinion of justice system. United States is the earliest country to legislate law to protect valuable information other then patent, trade mark and copyright, as an additional pattern of intellectual property right. According to the common law system, US practice of management of trade secret is seriously subjected by the judiciary opinion of their courts, specially the opinion from those United States Court of Appeal’s. The purpose of this research is to point out some issues that influence the operation of trade secrets protection under managerial respects from selected cases.