Question
It seems like obtaining, maintaining and defending a patent for our technology would be costly and time consuming. Yet we are told that early application for a patent is crucial. For us as a startup both time and money are in short supply, so why wouldn't it be the best option to simply keep the designs and code secret?
Answers: 3 public & 1 private
I would also add that the trade secret protection varies strongly from one country to the other. The criteria for granting it and the respective damages are very country dependent.
A patent, on the other hand, offers a more or less similar protection in most countries.
Finally, as simple as it sounds now, actually keeping information secret is not that easy. As long as you are a few engineers in a room, friend and all, it can work rather easily. Once you grow to 50 people and you start having some people leaving, making sure they will not reuse the knowledge they acquired in your company is not easy, most of the time.
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