No, trade secrets are still protected by IP law.
Coca-Cola specifically. Apparently, you can own a secret even if you’ve shared it.
Yes, it depends on the circumstances…but some thngs can be kept secret at fairly low costs and yet the secret keeps competition from mimicking the product. Coke has hundreds of competitors but there are no identical tasting sodas to Coke.
I don’t assume 100% success and unlike you I don’t assume 100% failure. If keeping secrets only gives a small lead time it may still be very valuable for the group keeping the secret. First to market can mean a lot in business.
How does that expain why you drink water? Is that because water has a better brand image than Coke? Or maybe because you prefer water at times to the taste of Coke. To argue that taste in relation to food is not the most important element is just plain stupid. If Coke tastes bad people eventually won’t buy it no matter how much they spend on advertising.
The issue is really about contracts. I think they have a place in controlling information and basically Kinsella and LS think they don’t.
The consumer is not interested in the value of Coke’s secret…they are interested only in the taste and the price. Given that lots of people buy Coke it is reasonable to think people like the taste. It is also true that not all soda tastes the same…some by design others by the inability to exactly imitate the other product. So what matters for Coke is to keep other firms from exactly mimicking their taste. Same is true for KFC. Uniqueness has advantages.
The problem is, less than 100% success is 100% failure in the digital age. If one person breaks their NDA, even if they pay the contractual consequences, that secret is out, and it can never be recaptured.
All a NDA can do, is provide some financial relief for the leak (assuming it can be enforced).
I have no problem with keeping secrets, but as you mention, in order to come to market, the secret has to be somewhat revealed. While coke may have a secret recipe, it’s not beyond our technological capability to determine what it is from a commercial sample.
Where I think secrets have the most utility, is when they are for internal processes, not for end user consumption. I’m talking about proprietary analytical methods and formulas. Like that super computer Sachs has been using to game Wall Street.
And what if they don’t break the NDA?
Also, what is your definition of anarchy?
I don’t understand the question.
More or less, this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntaryism
I agree that taste is important. My point was, Coke spent a lot of time and money on research prior to announcing that they were switching the fomula. All of their taste tests had the same result - the new formula tasted better than the old, and by a very large margin. But after the formula was changed, there was a backlash. It seems that the tradition of Coke was more important to consumers than taste. Wikipedia has a rather detailed article on new Coke, as does snopes.com.
Also, keep in mind that Coke’s formula is partially the result of state monopoly. I have no idea to what degree coca leaves affect the taste of Coke, but I do know that spent leaves are in there. They are imported to the US by Stepan, which is the only company in the US authorized to do so.
You guys do know that the formula for Coke is not actually secret don’t you?
If people don’t break the NDA then the NDA effectively protects the IP.
So anarchy for you is an end point where no State exists. Can any form of coercion exist? What is the definition of the State?
Coke’s mistake was to assume that simply because one tasted better than the other that it meant no one would want the other. Steak tastes better than hamburger but I still like hamburger.
The whole point of this example is that Coke has successfully used NDA’s to keep the Coke formula secret, just like KFC. Those are just big examples there are millions of small examples in virtually every business in the world. People like to keep information they think is valuable under control if they can. It seems so obvious and human nature that it is strange you don’t see that.
That’s like saying if I tell you a secret and you promise not to tell, and you don’t, that trust effectively protects the IP. It doesn’t actually prove anything about NDAs.
I’m not sure I agree with that.
Absolutely. Note, I oppose aggression, not coercion.
Agent claiming and enforcing monopoly authority on a jurisdiction through the use of aggression. Give or take. I suspect we need a new thread for this topic.
Yep. Such amazing secrets. How to mix water and sugar and how to fry chicken. The wonders of free enterprise…
And the whole truth is that neither one of them have done any such thing. I gave a link a few posts back to a book that reveals the formulas for both Coke and KFC’s “secret recipe” batter. The whole secret formula shtick was always nothing more than a marketing gimmick.
Oh, the irony.
This is unlikely. I strongly suspect those formulas are in fact still secret. Because some book claims to have the formula doesnt mean they do. What strongly suggests they do not is the fact that there are no generic substitutes for those highly popular products. I suspect we would see that if the formula was really available.
This is by definition as you described it a true statement. That is what NDA’s are, a formal agreement not to tell other people some piece of information. It has everything to do with NDA’s.
Ok I will start one.