- within Intellectual Property topic(s)
- in United States
- with readers working within the Media & Information industries
- within Intellectual Property and Technology topic(s)
Not every inventive product or method has to be protected by means of patenting. Protecting an invention by a patent means sharing every detail of the invention with everyone. An invention every detail of which is shared can be easily implemented by other persons. However, the person or persons applying for the invention are entitled to a patent document valid for 20 years, for disclosing this information to public and for contributing to the development of technology.
The firms or persons who aspire to make use of the benefits of the invention can choose not sharing the details of the invention with others.
In this case, the invention remains a trade secret.
In general, the information has to have the following characteristics in order to be qualified as trade secret:
- It is commercially valuable because it is confidential,
- it can only be known by a restricted group of people, and
- it will be subject to reasonable steps taken to keep the information confidential by the actual owner, including the use of nondisclosure agreement for business partners and employees.
Unauthorized acquisition, use or disclosure of such confidential information by other parties in a manner contrary to commercial practices is accepted as an unfair practice and violation of protection of trade secret.
Trade secrets include technical information such as the information about production processes, pharmaceutical test data, the design and drawings of computer programs, as well as commercial information such as dealer and customer lists and advertising strategies.
It is possible to keep as a trade secret a subject that cannot be easily obtained from an existing product, namely a subject that is difficult to obtain by reverse engineering. In the contrary case, the person who independently reaches the invention by reverse engineering can make and application on their own account, since they cannot know that the invention is a trade secret.
As a consequence, even though keeping an invention as a trade secret is necessary in some cases, it carries risks in cases where confidentiality is not possible or the invention can be accessed by other people through other methods.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
