The Difference Between Patents and Trade Secrets
- Patents are IP rights that are granted under federal law
- grant exclusive rights to an inventor of an item for a certain period of time
- patent owner has the right to keep others from making or using the patented invention
- has the power to stop others from selling their invention
- Trade secrets protect the formulas, processes, methods, and information that give a business a competitive edge
- must have value to a person or business
- Otherwise, there is no reason to protect it
- is a common law concept that has been codified under federal law and by many states
- To establish a trade secret, the information that is to be protected must:
- Have value
- The information must have economic value
- means that it is valuable to the business that protects i
- means that it would be valuable to competitors of the busines
- considers the money, time, and resources that the business put into developing the information
- The more valuable the information, the more likely that it is a trade secret
- Be unknown
- The information must not be known outside of the business
- If other companies or people know about the information, then it is not a secret
- public awareness of the information can end its protected status
- Be unascertainable
- The information must not be easy to duplicate or even reverse engineer
- If little effort is needed to ascertain the information
- then it is unlikely to be considered a trade secret
- Be protected
- information must be protected
- means that the business must take steps to make sure that it does not become accessible or known to the public
- To protect the information:
- use confidentiality and nondisclosure contracts when they share the information with other
- The more a business protects the information, the more likely it is a trade secret
- trade secrets are not registered
- don’t have to meet any registration or procedural formalities to protect his or her trade secret
- Because they are kept secret
- trade secrets can be protected for an unlimited time
- To enforce their trade secrets:
- a person or business must take actions that protect them and keep them secret
- If a trade secret is stolen,
- a person can pursue remedies allowed under the law against the thief
- A person who violates a trade secret can be held responsible under: