More on patent it or keep it as a trade secret - impact of patent application filing:

A provisional or non-provisional patent application can be filed while maintaining trade secret protection, (until . . . )

• Patent applications are not available to the public, (until . . . )

• Patent applications are held in the strictest confidence by the USPTO, (until . . . )

• Any publicity about any recent patent application filing is derived from private sources (usually the owner) and the USPTO will neither confirm nor deny such reports.

• Therefore the filing of a patent application does not, in and of itself, have any impact on trade secret maintenance.

The first "until" event triggering availability, i.e., public access to a patent application:

• The USPTO publishes non-provisional patent applications 18 months after the effective filing date, (unless . . .).

• If priority is claimed from a provisional application, the 18-months-to-publication count starts at on the provisional filing date (so publication might come 6 months after the actual non-provisional filing date).

• Unless the applicant files a request for non-publication together with the non-provisional application when filed.

• A non-publication request cannot be filed after the non-provisional application is filed, and cannot be filed if a counterpart filing in a country with an 18-month-publication rule is intended.

• Therefore trade secret protection can be maintained on disclosures in a U.S. patent application until the 18-months-from-filing-date publication triggers public access, and longer if non-publication of the non-provisional application is requested when it is filed.

• The filing of a provisional application in and of itself never destroys trade secret protection.  Provisional applications themselves are neither examined nor published.  (The publication of a non-provisional application claiming priority from a provision will trigger public access to that provisional application.

The second "until" event triggering availability, i.e., public access to a patent application.

• The issuance of a U.S. patent triggers public access to all disclosures in the patent application, and to all disclosures in earlier applications (provisional or non-provisional) from which filing date priority is claimed for the patent.

• The issuance of a U.S. patent destroys all trade secret protection for the disclosures therein, absolutely and for all time.

• A. U.S. patent cannot be issued without the applicant's awareness.  The applicant can still elect trade secret protection over patent protection after patent-application allowance, by abandoning the patent application before issuance.