Copyrights and Secrets

John Cowan cowan at mercury.ccil.org
Fri Mar 1 04:18:04 UTC 2002


David Johnson scripsit:

> I don't know much about trade secrets. But I seem to recall that you actually 
> have to apply for a trade secret whereas you don't have to apply for 
> copyright.

No, a trade secret is anything useful in trade that you know and others
don't.  For example, the recipe for Coca-Cola.  There is no registry for trade
secrets.

> You can't publish a trade secret and keep it secret. From what I 
> understand, the primary purpose of trade secrets is to give someone a club to 
> prevent someone else from revealing secrets, but that once these secrets are 
> sufficiently revealed, you lose the trade secret rights.

These things are true.

-- 
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan at ccil.org
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
        --_The Hobbit_
--
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