A patent application or design registration confers a monopoly on a product, process, or design. However, disclosure of the invention or design is required and, at the end of the period of the right, the invention will be in the public domain and available for anyone to use or copy. An inventor (particularly of a process) might therefore choose not to patent the process, but to keep it a secret whilst also using it for commercial gain. In doing this, he might hope to maintain a monopoly over the use of his inventive process for longer than the period of protection conferred by a patent. This is a risky strategy, however. The law offers relatively little protection for trade secrets and, whilst the inventor may be entitled to damages in breach of confidence if someone (for example, an ex-employee) discloses the process, there is nothing to stop others using it once disclosed, and there is no protection at all from an independent inventor coming up with the same idea.
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