Abstract: The protection of trade secret is based on secrecy which has two logic bases:one is people who know the secrecy keep it,the other is people who don’t know the secrecy won’t take it illegally.The contradiction between secrecy and publicity just affects the protection field,not the legal attribute of right.The intellectual property system can’t exclude trade secret just because of the theory differences between trade secret and the traditional intellectual property.Guided by theory of balance of interests,trade secret will get good theoretical interpretations and systematic construction force in the spirits,principles and rules of intellectual property law.

Key words: trade secret, intellectual property, secrecy, publicity, protection