Did you know that you don't need to patent every bright idea
that you have in order to make money off it? Some of the most
valuable intellectual property is protected as a trade secret. And
to have a trade secret, you don't even need to file an
application for it — you just don't tell anyone what the
secret is.
Think of Coca-Cola. Despite being required to print its
ingredients on every single bottle, Coca-Cola has made billions off
its trade secret recipe. If Coca-Cola's inventor had decided to
file a patent application in 1892 instead of keeping the recipe a
secret, patent protection would have expired long before Pepsi ever
came onto the market in 1965. Patent protection lasts 20 years at
most. Trade secrets can last forever.
