How is a patent different from a trade secret?
One of the fundamental
elements of patent law is that, in exchange for being
able to protect his invention, the inventor must publicly disclose the details
of his invention. The whole purpose of trade
secret law, however, is to
protect one’s inventions when the do
not publicly disclose
it. In fact, if something is publicly disclosed, it is no longer entitled
to trade secret protection. Thus, patents and trade secrets are pretty
much the opposite of each other, and you can not have both patent rights and
trade secret rights in the same thing.
Patent protection is
stronger than trade secret protection - nobody can make or use your patented
invention regardless of whether or not they know about your invention, but if
they make or design the thing you are protecting by trade secret without
actually using your trade secret, they are free to
use it and you cannot stop them. However, the protection offered by trade
secret law can theoretically last forever, while the protection offered by a
patent only lasts for a limited time. This leads to the obvious question
of whether you should keep
something a trade secret or patent it.
.
Posted in: FAQ-PATENTS
