Right, but if the product is on the market, doesn't that make the whole trade secret thing kind of void anyway? Because it most likely can be reverse engineered

Right, but if the product is on the market, doesn't that make the whole trade secret thing kind of void anyway? Because it most likely can be reverse engineered? If it's provided to users only as a service, then I can see they could protect it as a trade secret by limiting access somehow. But then... would that invalidate the patent (considering the first-to-file stuff).