When trade secrets are better than patents
See the post on the hallingblog titled What Would Real Patent Reform Look Like? , including text by Jim Lauffenburger:
It is interesting that in my company, EM Microelectronics, the best method for protection is definitely keeping a secret, not filing for patent protection. (And keeping those secrets is extremely challenging and difficult.)
Why, you ask?
Because we are unable to enforce patent protection in Asia, and unable to prevent literal copying.
We spend man-decades of highly skilled (and expensive) engineering time to design a new IC. The IC goes into mass production in some successful product. It gets rapidly reverse engineered in Asia. Nearly direct copies of the part soon appear, and can be priced at only silicon-cost, without the huge development costs.
It is interesting that in my company, EM Microelectronics, the best method for protection is definitely keeping a secret, not filing for patent protection. (And keeping those secrets is extremely challenging and difficult.)
Why, you ask?
Because we are unable to enforce patent protection in Asia, and unable to prevent literal copying.
We spend man-decades of highly skilled (and expensive) engineering time to design a new IC. The IC goes into mass production in some successful product. It gets rapidly reverse engineered in Asia. Nearly direct copies of the part soon appear, and can be priced at only silicon-cost, without the huge development costs.
posted by Lawrence B. Ebert at 8:41 AM
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