Give an advantage and a disadvantage of maintaining a formula as a trade secret and an advantage and disadvantage of filing a patent application for the formula.?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Trade secret. An advantage is that if properly protected, the trade secret status of the formula (much like the famous and valuable formula for Coca-Cola) can last forever. Protection can endure forever. A disadvantage is that if someone independently discovers the formula or perhaps lawfully reverse engineers the formula, the value of the information plummets and others will be able to use it and compete with the owner.?Patent. An advantage is that a patent gives an exclusive period of time (20 years from the date of filing of the patent application) within which the owner of the patent is allowed to exploit the formula, and no one else has any rights whatsoever to use or make the formula. Moreover, if the formula could be easily reverse engineered, a patent will provide stronger protection because making, using, or selling the patented invention is an infringement.The disadvantage is that as soon as the period of patent protection expires, anyone in the world may make, use, and sell the formula (and they will know how to do so from the application itself), and the owner will have lost this competitive advantage.