Secrecy protection

Similarly, some employment agreements in technical fields provide that a departing employee will not accept employment at variance with the interest of his previous employer for a reasonable fee for a limited period of time—say six months to a year on payment of his salary. Consider such secrecy protection in connection with the chapter on employment agreements. 

The Athenian economy was effectively divided into disclosed phanera) and clandestine (aphanes) markets. In the disclosed market, real-estate loans were attested by boundary-stones placed openly on property, and estates were transferred with full confirmation of already-known holdings, principally real-estate. In the aphanes market, investments and ownership were cloaked in secrecy, protected from tax-collectors and creditors. On the... 

What confidentiality and/or secrecy agreements are needed to protect both parties ... 

Trade secret protection is probably the weakest of all intellectual property rights. The US Uniform Trade Secret Act defines a trade secret as information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program device, method, technique, or process, that (1) 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 (2) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy [33]. 

Another way to protect a competitive edge for a new product is to protect it by secrecy. The formula for Coca-Cola has been kept a secret for over 100 years. Potentially, there is no time limit on such protection. However, for the protection through secrecy to be viable, competitors must not be able to reproduce the product from chemical analysis. This is likely to be the case only for certain classes of specialty and food products for which the properties of... 

Levin8 prepared a survey for research and development R D heads in which they were asked about the effectiveness of different methods for protecting products and processes patents, industrial secrecy, rapidity in the learning curve and sales efforts. The results showed that product patents were considered to be more effective than process patents, but in general all the other methods were regarded as more effective than the protection provided by patents, in a general survey that was not addressed to any particular sector. 

Some SCADA systems use unique, proprietary protocols for communications between field devices and servers. Often the security of SCADA systems is based solely on the secrecy of these protocols. Unfortunately, obscure protocols provide very little real security. Do not rely on proprietary protocols or factor default configuration settings to protect your system. Additionally, demand that vendors disclose any backdoor or vendor interfaces to your SCADA systems, and expect them to provide systems that are capable of being secured. 

Second, natural products from endangered plants are scarcely known just because ofthe rarity and protection of the species. Protection is extended towards commercial exploitation, vsdiich deters pharmaceutical companies from undertaking any study of the plants. The agreement between Merck and Costa Rica for examining the local flora is an exception, but the results remain under corporate secrecy. 

The secrecy of the manufacturing processes is maintained partially by discouraging outside investigators through patent protection. However, the most important aspect of the protection is probably that examination of the finished catalyst offers little information on how it was prepared and no information on why a particular preparation procedure was used. 

William Eamon has articulated the multiple valences of secrecy in the sixteenth century as "esoteric wisdom, the domain of occult or forbidden knowledge, the artisan s cunning, the moral injunctions to protect secrets from the vulgus, and the political power that attended knowledge of secrets." Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature, 5. 

REVIEW OF CONSERVATION EFFORTS. Conservation efforts are often conducted by individuals and groups who do not release details of their work even when protection of forthcoming patents is not involved. Such confidentiality is unnecessary and is, indeed, suspect (51). This unwarranted secrecy must not accompany the conservation efforts for such a national treasure as the tomb of Nefertari. Therefore, publication of detailed conservation work in respected peer-reviewed journals is mandatory. Not only will this well-accepted scientific practice result in more responsible conservation work, but it will ensure international deliberation, which can lead only to a more rigorous study and evaluation of optimum solutions to conservation problems. 

The cash most often ends up in safe haven countries, i.e., countries where banking laws protect depositors and enable them to avoid detection or having their financial activities reported. The Cayman Islands, located approximately 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Cuba in the Caribbean Sea, are a favorite choice because of their bank secrecy laws. 

From the start. Van Ameringen had created a highly focused company, a leader in U.S. markets. Moreover, after 1958 the firm became a highly successful competitor in international markets. But, unlike the other enterprises described in this chapter, its barriers to entry lay not in scale but in the quality of its products, protected by secrecy, by a stream of improved products, and by patents. 

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