Protecting Innovation: Patents vs Trade Secrets

A corporation developing new technology must decide which of the two diverging courses—patent or trade secret—it will pursue to best protect its intellectual property, a decision that requires analysis of a multitude of factors.

Food Technology Magazine | Article

JUDIE D. DZIEZAK

As corporations invest in new technology, they find themselves grappling with the question of how best to protect their investment in the technology. This article examines the two options available, each antithetical to the other: protecting the technology as a patented invention or protecting the technology as a trade secret.

The first part of the article focuses on patents, discussing the types of subject matter that are patentable, the requirements for obtaining a patent, and a generalized ap…





Table 1—Examples of information that may be protected as a trade secret.

Table 2—Comparison of utility patents and trade secrets.




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