What is the difference between patent protection and trade secret protection?

The so-called protection of Trade secrets means that employees are not allowed to use the company's trade secrets to engage in personal profit-making activities during the labor contract and for a period of time after the labor contract is terminated or terminated. So what is the difference between patent protection and trade secret protection? The editor of Legal Savior Network has compiled the following content to answer your questions. I hope it will be helpful to you.

What is the difference between patent protection and trade secret protection

1. Comparison of the two methods of obtaining rights

Applying for patent rights must follow certain legal procedures and comply with the provisions of our country’s laws. When a patent right is granted, the technical information for the final application for the patent must be disclosed to the public, and the patentee shall have the exclusive right to use the technical information of the patent right within the statutory protection period.

No approval is required to obtain trade secret rights, yes According to legal provisions, the owner of technical information will sign a confidentiality agreement, which stipulates that the technical secret information can be used indefinitely before it is disclosed. For example, the Coca-Cola Company's formula for making Coca-Cola is a trade secret, and this information is not known to the public and has not been announced to the outside world. Then this trade secret can be said to be Coca-Cola's technical secret.

2. Comparison of the claim contents between the two

The Patent Law stipulates that patent rights have three characteristics, namely creativity, novelty and practicality. Anyone who does not meet these three characteristics can apply to the Patent Reexamination Board in accordance with the law to declare the patent invalid. If a patent is If it is declared invalid, then all technical information related to the patent will be considered public information, and two protection conditions will be lost at the same time, the possibility of patent protection and trade secret protection.

The novelty and creativity of technical information are not so demanding for trade secrets , the acquisition of trade secret rights has no substantial impact on the level of novelty. From the definition of trade secrets in Article 10, Paragraph 3 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, it is pointed out that trade secrets have been adopted by the right holder to a certain extent The technical information and business information of confidentiality measures have the characteristics of not being known and familiar to the public, the characteristics of bringing economic benefits to the rights holders, and the strong practicality.

3. Comparison of the protection scope of the two

Invention patents, utility model patents and design patents all belong to the category of patents. There are specific details about patent protection in the patent specification Description of the scope, anything that is not within the description scope of the specification does not fall within the scope of patent protection.

Trade secrets do not need patent rights to protect technical information, so it can be a design solution, a patented process, etc.

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