ASSIGNMENT 12: Part 2

TRADE SECRETS vs. PATENTS: how do you choose?

Advantages of trade secrets:
-Trade secret protection has the advantage of not being limited in time (patents last in general for up to 20 years). It may therefore continue indefinitely as long as the secret is not revealed to the public.

-Trade secrets involve no registration costs (though there may be high costs related to keeping the information confidential).
-Trade secret protection does not require compliance with formalities such as disclosure of the information to a Government authority.

Disadvantages of trade secrets:
-If the secret is embodied in an innovative product, others may be able to inspect it, dissect it and analyze it (i.e. "reverse engineer" it) and discover the secret and be thereafter entitled to use it. Trade secret protection of an invention in fact does not provide the exclusive right to exclude third parties from making commercial use of it. Only patents and utility models can provide this type of protection.
-Once the secret is made public, anyone may have access to it and use it at will.

-A trade secret is more difficult to enforce than a patent. The level of protection granted to trade secrets varies significantly from country to country, but is generally considered weak, particularly when compared with the protection granted by a patent.
-A trade secret may be patented by someone else who developed the relevant information by legitimate means.