ABSTRACT
Trade secrets were used long before the patent system came into being and remain an effective tool today. If the proper practical and legal precautions are taken by their owner, trade secrets can be kept and exploited for a long time, especially if reverse engineering of the product or process containing the secret is very difficult or if the physical means of concealment of such information is otherwise easy to maintain. The formula for Benedictine liqueur has, for instance, remained a secret for many centuries. It is still as valuable a piece of secret information as when the formula was first devised and indeed with the benefit of the accompanying trade mark is now probably even more valuable than when it was first made. So called ‘black box’ licences in which a piece of advanced technology is licensed to a licensee without revealing its mode of operation are still relatively common, where the value of the technology justifies it and it is possible to detect a licensee’s unauthorized investigation of it.
