"Recent Supreme Court decisions, USPTO regulations and proposed legislation in the United States and activity in the World Health Organization and World Trade Organization, all tend to weaken patents, thus tipping the scale toward keeping biotechnology inventions secret instead of patenting them. This panel will discuss the basic bargain in patent disclosure; the best corporate practices in determining what to maintain as a trade secret; protecting, licensing and enforcing biotechnology trade secrets as compared to patents; and the special risks of trade secrecy—academic publication, diminished industry/university collaboration, regulatory disclosure, litigation,
employee departures, Web site postings and the open source
movement. Following the decline of patents to its logical conclusion will lead to practical approaches for managing intellectual property in a time of great change in law and policy."

Objective1:Discuss how to decide which innovations to protect as secrets and which to patent and publish.

Objective2:Educate on the broader implications of international, judicial, legislative and regulatory reforms that either weaken or strengthen patents.

Objective3:Offer practical tips for protecting trade secrets and for obtaining, licensing and enforcing patents in an increasingly hostile setting.