> I don't want others to know i am donating to a preprint server which could be used against you in a court that you read competitors papers before publishing y

> I don't want others to know i am donating to a preprint server which could be used against you in a court that you read competitors papers before publishing your own design patent. How does a donation prove that? I'm not a lawyer, but I highly doubt this would hold up in a real court. arxiv hosts thousands of manuscripts. Also, following your logic, having an arxiv account or posting a preprint would also require caution, so should they allow anonymous postings and remove the endorsement system?