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Patents and trade secrets are both ways to protect inventions, but are otherwise very different.

A patent is formally registered with the federal government, and the information is available to everyone ("patent" in this instance means "open"), but the inventor has the right to prevent anyone from using it without permission. Patents are normally good for 20 years.

A trade secret is not registered or revealed to anyone, and can be protected forever--or until someone figures it out by reverse-engineering or other means.

So if you patent your new widget, I can look at the plans and specifications but I can't do anything with them without your permission, for 20 years. But if you call your new widget a trade secret and I figure it out the following week, that's it: no more secret. That's why trade secrets are almost ridiculously closely guarded.

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12y ago

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