The law will not, on a smooth run, protect mere ideas or information which is not spiced with the expression or manifestation of the same, as the monopoly of ideas will always be alien to the principle of equity and justice.
Trade secrets are protected because these ideas cannot be separated from the expression and use of it. The physical manifestations of these ideas are based on the information which are not disclosed or are kept as trade secrets and trying to severe them would be loss of several rights on the owner of such intellectual property since the trade secret would have to hold some type of either economic or monetary value.
