Trade secret records timestamping: date your secrets without revealing them

Why trade secret records timestamping fits confidential information

Most ways of dating a document involve showing it to someone: filing it, emailing it or publishing it. That defeats the point when the value is in nobody else knowing. A TimeBind works differently. Each file is hashed locally on your own computer, and only its SHA-256 fingerprint is recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain. The fingerprint can’t be turned back into the file.

That gives you a dated record you can produce later, by showing the original file and its certificate to the people who need to see them, such as your lawyer. Until then, nothing about the content is disclosed.

It’s a different trade-off from a patent. IP Australia’s page on non-disclosure agreements notes that some businesses keep information secret instead of having it exposed when a patent specification is made public. A timestamp fits alongside that choice. It doesn’t give you exclusive rights.

What to record: formulas, processes, source code, customer methods

• Formulas and recipes, each released version. For food businesses, see how to protect your recipes.
• Process sheets and manufacturing methods, including settings and tolerances.
• Source code, as an archive of each release. See source code timestamping.
• Customer methods, pricing models and supplier terms that give you an edge.
• Test results and lab notebooks behind a formula or process.
• Your internal list of confidential information, and each version of your NDA and staff confidentiality terms.

Store the exact files you timestamp somewhere safe and unchanged. Re-saving, converting or editing a file gives it a different fingerprint, so a copy that has been opened and saved won’t match. Keep descriptions you share with a certificate general, and don’t put the secret itself in a file name.

Pair it with access controls and NDAs

A timestamp records when a file existed. Keeping it secret is a separate job, and it’s the part the law generally looks at. Practical steps include:

• limiting access to the people who need it, with logins and locked folders
• using confidentiality agreements with partners, suppliers and contractors before you share anything
• including confidentiality terms in staff agreements
• marking confidential material as confidential
• keeping a record of who was given access, and when

Timestamp these records too. A dated copy of the NDA version a partner signed, or of the access list on a given day, can sit beside the dated formula. For new inventions, see invention records timestamping.

What it doesn’t do

• It doesn’t make information confidential, or make it a trade secret.
• It doesn’t show who created the information, or that someone else copied it. Someone else may develop the same thing independently.
• It doesn’t give exclusive rights the way a patent or registered design can.
• It doesn’t show the file existed any earlier than the recorded time.
• It doesn’t decide how a court or anyone else will treat the record. That depends on the facts and the law where you are.

Which plan suits trade secret records

A Pooled TimeBind uses 1 Token and an ASAP TimeBind uses 3, and each holds up to 10 files. The Free plan includes 1 Token every month. Essential is USD $20 a month for 5 Tokens and Expert is USD $50 a month for 15. For a company recording many versions, Business is USD $149 a month for 60 Tokens with one company account and a monthly invoice. See TimeBinder business plans. To learn how fingerprints protect your files, read blockchain file security.