 Difference between Trade Secret and a Copyright. |
Halph-Price 
Zombie Algorithm
Registration Date: 22-12-2004
Posts: 6,160
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found this on wikipedia under Public Domain, in relation to copyrights.
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Trade secret
If guarded properly, trade secrets are forever. A business may keep the formula to Coca-Cola a secret. However, once it is disclosed to the public, the former secret enters public domain, although an invention using the former secret may still be patentable in the United States if it is not barred by statute (including the on-sale bar).[29] Some businesses choose to protect products, processes, and information by guarding them as trade secrets, rather than patenting them. Hershey Foods, Inc., for example, does not patent some of its processes, such as the recipe for Reese's, but rather maintains them as trade secrets, to prevent competitors from easily duplicating or learning from their invention disclosures, or from using the information after the patent lapses. One risk, however, is that anyone may reverse engineer a product and thus discover (and copy and publish) all of its secrets, to the extent they are not covered by other laws (e.g. contract). |
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This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Halph-Price: 18-12-2008 21:49.
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18-12-2008 18:06 |
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Muad'Dib
Andrejnalin
Registration Date: 02-12-2003
Posts: 4,197
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Law perspective (
): the difference between the two is that disclosure of both to the public is punishable by law in the case when the res ('thing') is protected. Protection of copyright is by patent, and of trade secret is by an agreement between the parties (or in some rare cases, the state creates law institutions for dealing with such cases where the trade secret was broken).
The factual similarity between them is that they both protect intellectual rights (inventions).
The factual difference is that trade secret is secret, and patent is public.
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19-12-2008 00:44 |
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