Cigarette company trade secrets are not secret: an analysis of reverse engineering reports in internal tobacco industry documents released as a result of litigation.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Use previously secret tobacco industry documents to assess tobacco companies' routine claims of trade secret protection for information on cigarette ingredients, additives and construction made to regulatory agencies, as well as the companies' refusal to publicly disclose this information.

Methods

We analysed previously secret tobacco industry documents available at (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu) to identify 100 examples of seven major tobacco companies' reverse engineering of their competitors' brands between 1937 and 2001.

Results

These reverse engineering reports contain detailed data for 142 different measurements for at least two companies, including physical parameters of the cigarettes, tobacco types, humectants, additives, flavourings, and smoke c

SUBMITTER: Velicer C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4263698 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature