>Plenty of businesses are based on patented secret sauces. Secret sauces are, by definition, unpatented - if a business has patented an idea, it is no longer s

>Plenty of businesses are based on patented secret sauces. Secret sauces are, by definition, unpatented - if a business has patented an idea, it is no longer secret, and the success of that company is then partially enforced by the exclusivity of the patent. You don't need a non-compete if your employees have access to patented content, because they aren't legally allowed to reproduce it anyways. >Even for the type of companies that rely on execution, there will be important lessons learned, which ultimately become the "secret sauces" Can you give an example of this? I think it's unlikely that specific "lessons learned" could be so valuable. Sure, companies are afraid of losing their experienced employees - but all companies are afraid of that anyways. It has little to do with the idea of a "secret sauce", and everything to do with simple experience.