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Protecting the Secret Sauce: What You Need to Know About Intellectual Property (IP)

Intellectual property (IP) rights may apply to a multitude of things, from corporate branding names and new inventions to product designs and secret recipes. Do you have a secret sauce whether a novel or a novel idea? How is your secret sauce best protected?

Types of Intellectual Property (IP)

In the US, intellectual property rights violation awards can reach eight figures. (Business Insurance)

There are four main types of IP rights. Which one to choose to protect your IP depends on what you are protecting: a slogan for your business, your granny’s recipe for pop tarts or a new operating system.

Trade secrets (Uniform Trade Secrets Act and Defend Trade Secrets Act)

A trade secret may be a recipe, formula, technique or process you don’t want anyone to know about. According to commercial law firm Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP, there are two types. The first are secrets that for some reason don’t fulfill the criteria for being patented, e.g. they aren’t inventive enough. The second are secrets so hush-hush, an inventor does not wish to patent them. One of the main reasons an inventor would choose to keep an invention a trade secret is because patents expire, trade secrets don’t. The classic example is Coca-Cola, which is not patented. If it had been at the time of its invention in 1886, the formula would have been in the public domain 20 years’ later, as patents are time limited.

  • According to The Hustle, in 2007, three Coca-Cola workers were sent to prison for offering Pepsi insider information about a new Coca-Cola product. They were indicted for wire fraud and conspiracy to sell trade secrets. The trio received sentences between five and eight years, and had to pay restitution. The most interesting thing (Read more...)

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Infosec Resources authored by Penny Hoelscher. Read the original post at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/infosecResources/~3/sR6yflO6Clg/