Trade Secret vs Patent Strategy: How WD-40 Protected Its Formula for 70+ Years
Few products are as recognizable, or as universally useful, as WD-40. The familiar blue-and-yellow can has become a staple in garages, workshops, and toolboxes around the world. Yet behind this everyday product lies one of the most carefully protected formulas in modern industry.
For more than 70 years, the company behind WD-40 has guarded the exact composition of its product with extraordinary diligence. Instead of relying on patents, the company chose a different intellectual property strategy: protecting the formula as a trade secret. That decision, and the steps taken to preserve the secret, offer a compelling case study of how intellectual property strategy can shape a product’s longevity and competitive advantage.
