IANAL, but the thinking behind it, if not generally known, is definitely a trade secret. Using or disclosing that information to another party is trade secret i

IANAL, but the thinking behind it, if not generally known, is definitely a trade secret. Using or disclosing that information to another party is trade secret infringement. If (as an employee of that bike company) you developed a way to make the bike 20% lighter that wasn't readily discernible, you can't leave and start a competing company using that idea. The law around trade secret misappropriation is such a minefield that most companies separate the reverse engineering team from the implementation team (ie. clean room design).