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What are trade secrets and what are their advantages?

Trade secrets concern any information that provides a competitive advantage to a company and may involve sale systems, distribution methods, consumer profiles, production processes, advertising strategies, lists of suppliers and clients, and manufacturing processes.

When it comes to advantages, trade secrets offer very responsive and qualitative criteria for any business:

• Contrary to what happens with patents, protection is not limited to a period of time.

• They do not involve compliance with government authority formalities.

• They do not involve registration costs.

• They have immediate effect.

However, Inventa will always assess the situation of every client, on an individual basis, to determine whether the subject in question should be a trade secret, patent, or other kind of industrial property rights.

How can I protect my trade secret?

Unlike patents, trade secrets are protected without registration, procedural formalities, or any time limitations, which results in a special interest from small and medium companies. However, it is essential to check whether the trade secret meets the requirements to be considered one, such as:

· The information must be a secret (limited to small circles responsible for dealing with it).

· Its confidentiality must hold commercial value.

. Appropriate procedures must have been carried out by its owner to keep it secret (which may entail, for example, confidentiality agreements).

Should I keep it a trade secret or should I patent it?

If you have a trade secret, the ideal thing to do is protect it, since this way it will be protected from being made public. However, it is important to realize that your trade secret will be more valuable if it meets the following principles:

. Impossibility to be patented, if it doesn't meet this requirement.

. Assurance that it has been kept a secret for a long period of time.

. The existence of a relationship with the manufacturing process and not directly with products.

. The existence of a patent application in pending status.

How can Inventa help me?

Inventa’s teams work directly with trade secrets and are able to provide you with total assistance throughout the process of protecting your secret. It is important to remember that trade secrets involve employers, mediators, vendors, and everyone who directly works with the information - hence the need to set tools and methods in place to reduce the risk of disclosure.