Sorry, the answer has nothing to do with Arkansas. The answer is: they are both nauseatingly ripe for puns.

Two new cases caught my eye this week. First is a suit by Unitherm against Hormel for misappropriation of the secrets of pre-cooking sliced bacon. Of course pre-cooked bacon is one of this century's highest achievements. Finally, you can enjoy bacon for breakfast without having to risk being attacked by wild dogs or offending people by the odor throughout the day. Short version is that Hormel and Unitherm dated briefly while working together on a magical oven that could change the world by steaming bacon.

As with all celebrity weddings, they split. Under the agreement between the parties, Hormel owned the IP. Even still, somehow both of them filed a patent application on the inventions stemming from the research. So when Unitherm sued Hormel for misappropriating trade secrets, it should have been no surprise to Unitherm that when something is written in a published patent application, it is no longer a trade secret.

Also, if someone puts the process on YouTube, it loses its status as well:

Okay, so I doubt that the video discloses the same oven from the dispute, but who knew that stuff was just painted with liquid smoke and microwaved!

Second, Gillette is facing its own dispute involving patent applications.  Gillette has been working on bendable blades primarily, I assume, to increase the price of razors even higher and to force me to buy yet another razor handle to fit. A group of employees bailed out of Gillette and went to ShaveLogic.  They took the revolutionary rubber razor technology with them and, yes, ShaveLogic allegedly filed patent applications for the springy shavers.

For a history of the modern razor:

Takeaways (and the puns you've been waiting for)

It could save your bacon to remember that when you disclose something important in a patent application, once it is published, it is no longer a trade secret – even if it never issues as a patent. Also, beware of disputes over invention ownership – they can really cook your bacon.

Finally, avoid significant razor burn by training new employees (read as warning them) and screening them against bringing trade secrets with them into your workplace. These disputes can really slice your patent applications.

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