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| Authored by: Wol on Sunday, June 16 2013 @ 06:03 PM EDT |
You're arguing extremes :-)
But I think the distinction between "something that must be disclosed in
the normal course of business" and "something that the possessor wants
to keep secret because of its value" is both simple and clear.
The definition of a trade secret is knowledge which a person or company takes
all reasonable steps to prevent leaking. Not something which cannot leak.
Let me re-word it - if you have to place the knowledge in the public domain as
part of your business plan (eg you are selling the item in question) then you
cannot get a patent on that item, because you are not fulfilling your side of
the patent bargain - publishing information THAT WOULD OTHERWISE REMAIN SECRET.
If the information is such that an attempt to keep it secret would succeed for a
reasonable length of time, then it may be patent-eligible. After all, someone
here on Groklaw has already stated that his company makes some product using a
trade secret they have successfully kept for decades ...
Take the mouse trap ... you sell it, you can't patent it. If its inner workings
are obscured (or even if they aren't) the WAY that you make it can be hidden
inside your factory, therefore that is a patentable method.
Cheers,
Wol[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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