A patent refers to a type of intellectual property in which the owner of a given invention or innovation is granted the legal rights by the government to bar other individuals from replicating the development. However, they are only ratified for new, valuable, and non-evident inventions and last for two decades from the date of applying for the patent. A trade secret denotes a form of intellectual property that can manifest itself in the form of practice or formula that is not widely known or realistically ascertainable by other parties (Kulkarni, 2018). Despite the seeming difference between the two concepts, they can serve the same purpose to an individual seeking to safeguard their innovation, whether a product or practice.
The two concepts can serve the same purpose for an individual as they can reasonably hinder the public or business rivals from learning the key components of innovation. In the patent, competitors may have an idea of the functioning of innovation but lack the jurisdiction to replicate it in any of its distinct aspects. The primary purpose of a patent and trade secret is to guarantee that the developer of the innovation maintains control over it and that any possible revenues are channeled explicitly to them (Kulkarni, 2018). In this manner, both constructs would function to ensure that any monetary returns from the innovation developed do not enrich external parties. In the patent, the approach adopted is more austere as there is legal involvement when innovation cannot be hidden but has to be released to the public for widespread engagement with the offering. In the trade secret, however, a more modest approach is adopted by concealing the advantage point from competitors
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Reference
Kulkarni, A. (2018). Economic Analysis of Composite Patent and Trade Secret Licensing and Antitrust Laws. Available at SSRN 3353581 .
