Page 274 - (ISC)² CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide

Patents protect the intellectual property rights of inventors. They
provide a period of 20 years during which the inventor is granted

exclusive rights to use the invention (whether directly or via licensing
agreements). At the end of the patent exclusivity period, the invention
is in the public domain available for anyone to use.

Patents have three main requirements.

The invention must be new. Inventions are patentable only if they
are original ideas.

The invention must be useful. It must actually work and

accomplish some sort of task.

The invention must not be obvious. You could not, for example,
obtain a patent for your idea to use a drinking cup to collect
rainwater. This is an obvious solution. You might, however, be able
to patent a specially designed cup that optimizes the amount of
rainwater collected while minimizing evaporation.

In the technology field, patents have long been used to protect
hardware devices and manufacturing processes. There is plenty of

precedent on the side of inventors in those areas. Recent patents have
also been issued covering software programs and similar mechanisms,
but these patents have become somewhat controversial because many
of them are viewed by the technical community as overly broad. The
issuance of these broad patents led to the evolution of businesses that
exist solely as patent holding companies that derive their revenue by

engaging in legal action against companies that they feel infringe upon
the patents held in their portfolio. These companies are known by
many in the technology community under the derogatory name
“patent trolls.”

Trade Secrets

Many companies have intellectual property that is absolutely critical to
their business, and significant damage would result if it were disclosed

to competitors and/or the public—in other words, trade secrets. We
previously mentioned two examples of this type of information from
popular culture—the secret formula for Coca-Cola and KFC’s “secret
blend of herbs and spices.” Other examples are plentiful; a