Trade secrets are absolutely protected by law. There are limits of course, but they are protected.

If the owner of a trade secret publishes (non-trivial) documentation about it, even accidentally, isn't it then no longer a trade secret?

Is it that trade secrets are protected or that corporate espionage is prohibited?

Both

	▲	LadyCailin 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They’re protected in certain ways. Notably though, they are NOT protected from reverse engineering.