Trade secret in reexam
From Patentbarquestions
Question on Trade secret, Proprietary, protective order materials. It seems the answer is easily found in MPEP 724.
- 724 Trade Secret, Proprietary, and Protective Order Materials
- [...]
- That wherever possible, trade secret law and patent laws should be administered in such manner
- that the former will not deter an inventor from seeking the benefit of the latter, because,
- the public is most benefited by the early disclosure of the invention in consideration of the
- patent grant. If a patent applicant is unwilling to pursue his right to a patent at the risk
- of certain loss of trade secret protection, the two systems will conflict, the public will be
- deprived of knowledge of the invention in many cases, and inventors will be reluctant to bring
- unsettled legal questions of significant current interest . . . for resolution.
The choices I remember were "information important for patentability will become part of
records accessible to the public unless petition is granted to expunge" & "information
found important will stay in the sealed envelope & never will become available to the public"

