Trade secret

Sometimes the best patent strategy is not to file at all. That decision is much harder to reverse than filing.

In simple words

Commercially valuable information kept confidential and protected through contract, access control and equitable duties of confidence rather than by registration. India has no dedicated trade secret statute.

Think of it as

Protection by keeping quiet, enforced through contracts and confidence.

Why it matters

Trade secrets last as long as the secret does and cost nothing to register - but they give no protection against independent invention or reverse engineering. Patents are the opposite: expensive, time-limited, published, and effective against independent inventors.

A simple example

A manufacturing process that cannot be detected from the finished product is often a better trade secret than a patent. A product feature visible to anyone who buys one is almost always the reverse.

Common mistake

Choosing trade secrecy for something a competitor can reverse-engineer in an afternoon - and then discovering they patented it first.

Where it comes from

Protected in India through contract and the equitable doctrine of breach of confidence; there is no separate trade secrets Act