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J. Nevin Shaffer, JR. J. Nevin Shaffer, JR.
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How do I choose whether to patent something or keep it as a trade secret?

The primary criteria there would be if you’re gonna sell something in the marketplace, it’s going to be able to be reverse engineered, so that if you have a patent on a pen, there’s no trade secret in that pen, but again, like the formula to Coca-Cola, it’s out there, but the exact formula, how they make it taste just like that, Pepsi is pretty close apparently, but it’s not the same. So, that’s capable of being kept secret. Keep it secret. It’s cheaper. It lasts a lot longer than a patent. A patent only lasts something less than 20 years.

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