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Secret Inventions, Jonas Anderson
Secret Inventions, Jonas Anderson
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
Patent law - and innovation policy more generally - has traditionally been conceptualized as antithetical to secrecy. Not only does the patent system require inventors to publicly disclose their inventions in order to receive a patent, but various patent doctrines are designed to encourage inventors to forego trade secrecy. This Article offers a critique of the law’s preference for patents. In particular, this Article examines whether and under what circumstances the law should prefer patents over secrets, and vice versa.
As an initial step towards a theoretically-supported system of inventor incentives, this Article constructs a framework that attempts to balance …