&gt; What patents were set up to prevent, IIRC, was trade secrets - they were a way to bribe creators to publish their ideas rather than sit on them.<p>This is what I learned too. I can&#x27;t for the life of me understand why the US has trade secret laws in addition to the patent laws. From some light reading on wikipedia, the answer seems to be &quot;why do we need a reason?&quot;