Footnote 1:
"Trade secret" means information, including a formula, pattern,
compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that:
(i) derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being
generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by,
other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use, and
(ii) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances
to maintain its secrecy.
Unif. Trade Secrets Act §1(4), 14 U.L.A. 438 (1990).
Footnote 2:
Harvard Apparatus, Inc. v. Cohen, 130 F. Supp. 2d 161, 175 (D. Mass. 2001); Restatement (First) of Torts §757 cmt. b (1939).
Footnote 3:
E.I. Dupont Denemours & Co. v. Christopher, 431 F.2d 1012 (5th
Cir. 1970).
Footnote 4:
Composite Marine Propellers, Inc. v. Van Der Woude, 962 F.2d 1263, 1265 (7th. Cir. 1992) (quoting Ill. Rev. Stat. ch. 140 P352(d), the Illinois version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act).
Footnote 5:
See generally 35 U.S.C. §102 (1998).
Conditions for patentability; novelty and loss of right to patent:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless—
- the invention was known or used by others in this country, or patented
or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before
the invention thereof by the applicant for patent, or
- the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this
or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than
one year prior to the date of the application for patent in the United States,
or
- he has abandoned the invention, or
- the invention was first patented or caused to be patented, or was the
subject of an inventor's certificate, by the applicant or his legal representatives
or assigns in a foreign country prior to the date of the application for
patent in this country on an application for patent or inventor's certificate
filed more than twelve months before the filing of the application in the
United States, or
- The invention was described in —
- an application for patent, published under §122(b), by another filed in the United States before the invention by the applicant for patent, except that an international application filed under the treaty defined in §351(a) shall have the effect under this subsection of a national application published under §122(b) only if the international application designating the United States was published under Article 21(2)(a) of such treaty in the English language; or
- a patent granted on an application for patent by another filed in
the United States before the invention by the applicant for patent,
except that a patent shall not be deemed filed in the United States
for the purposes of this subsection based on the filing of an international
application filed under the treaty defined in §351(a); or
- he did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented, or
-
- during the course of an interference conducted under §135 or §291, another inventor involved therein establishes, to the extent permitted in §104, that before such person's invention thereof the invention was made by such other inventor and not abandoned, suppressed, or concealed, or
- before such person's invention thereof, the invention was made in this country by another inventor who had not abandoned, suppressed, or concealed it. In determining priority of invention under this subsection, there shall be considered not only the respective dates of conception and reduction to practice of the invention, but also the reasonable diligence of one who was first to conceive and last to reduce to practice, from a tome prior to conception by the other.