Patents and trade secrets are tools for two different types of IP. If you've got a thing you can keep hidden, then you keep it as a trade secret. The quintessen

Patents and trade secrets are tools for two different types of IP. If you've got a thing you can keep hidden, then you keep it as a trade secret. The quintessential example is a secret recipe like the formula for Coca-Cola or Google's PageRank. If you've got a thing you can't keep hidden, for example because it gets shipped to a customer and can be reverse-engineered, then you can apply for a patent on it. Regarding a patent revealing trade secrets, an applicant really has no incentive to do so. A patent only needs to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention. That has been interpreted to mean without undue experimentation, meaning some experimentation may be necessary. [0]. And there is a requirement that a patent set out the "best mode" contemplated by the inventor, but a failure to do so doesn't result in the invalidation of the patent. [1]. [0] https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2164.html https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2164.html [1] https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2165.html https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2165.html