有时，往往由于人们对一个外来概念的“第一印象”如此深刻，以致据此得出的初次译名只能从此成为定译。将错就错地一直错下去“Trade secret”之被相比广泛地译成“商业秘密”，就是一例。其实“trade secret ”并不只是“商业秘密”，应正译为“业务秘密”才是。

“trade”未必是商业，而且也未必是贸易业（“商业”这译名看来很可能就是从“贸易业”引伸出来的）。这里的“trade”可以指各行各业中的任何一个行业—-它正如“a jack of all trades”中的“ trades”那样，都不只是什么“商业”而已。

因此——也因为“trade secret ”这一法律概念的内涵—— “trade secret ”不是“商业秘密”，而是包括“商业秘密”在内的“行业秘密”，“各行业的秘密”或“业务秘密 ”。

对了，既然说把“trade secret ”译作“业务秘密 ”也是根据“trade secret ”的内涵而来的，那就得把它拿出来展示番：

1. Innovations in business and trade, including inventions that could be patented, may in appropriate circumstances be protected as trade secrets.

                                                                   —You and the Law , 1980，p.192

2. Trade secrets are also protected by the law of torts and courts of equity. Information about one's trade customers, processes, or manufacture is confidential; but if it is not patented or copyrighted, another firm may make the same discoveries fairly —through research. slucy or observation —and may use them freely. If the second firm bribes or hires an employee of the first company, however, in order to obtain secrets, the second firm may be enjoined from using them. 

                                                    —Corley. Holmes & Robert, Fundamentals 

                                                                            of Business Law 1982. p.42

3. The duty of loyalty demands that information of a confidential character acquired while in the service of the principal shall be kept secret. This confidential information is usually called a trade secret. Trade secrets include plans, processes, tools, mechanisms, compounds, and informational data used in business operations.

                                                                                                  —Ibid, p.428