Sources

DPMA – Patentschutz

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„Darin wird untersucht, ob der Gegenstand der Anmeldung für einen Fachmann neu ist, auf einer erfinderischen Tätigkeit beruht und ob die Erfindung ausführbar offenbart sowie gewerblich anwendbar ist.“

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„Ein erteiltes Patent wirkt maximal zwanzig Jahre lang, die mit dem Tag nach der Anmeldung beginnen. Es gibt jedoch Ausnahmen für Arznei- und Pflanzenschutzmittel.“

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„Mit der Veröffentlichung der Patenterteilung im Patentblatt entsteht das Schutz- und Verbotsrecht des Patentinhabers“

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„Patente unterliegen, wie alle anderen gewerblichen Schutzrechte auch, dem Territorialitätsprinzip und gelten nur in dem Land beziehungsweise in dem Gebiet, für das sie erteilt wurden. Rechte aus einem vom DPMA erteilten Patent können Sie deshalb nur innerhalb Deutschlands geltend machen.“

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„Patente belohnen ihren Inhaber oder ihre Inhaberin durch ein befristetes und räumlich begrenztes Nutzungsmonopol. Sie erfüllen gleichzeitig eine wichtige Informationsfunktion: Die Veröffentlichung der Erfindung gibt Anreize für weitere Forschung und Entwicklung“

DPMA – Fragen rund um das Patent (FAQ)

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„Wenn eine Erfindung beim DPMA als Patent angemeldet wird, bleibt sie zunächst 18 Monate lang geheim. In dieser Zeit läuft (sofern ein Prüfungsantrag gestellt wurde) das Prüfungsverfahren. Auch wenn es in dieser Zeit noch nicht abgeschlossen sein sollte, erfolgt in jedem Falle 18 Monate nach dem Anmeldetag die Veröffentlichung der Erfindung.“

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„Wenn ein Patentprüfungsverfahren vor Ablauf der 18 Monate abgeschlossen ist, erscheint keine Offenlegungsschrift. Im Falle einer Patenterteilung wird dann gleich die Patentschrift veröffentlicht“

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„die Problemlösung und Verbesserung des bekannten Stands der Technik (also die Erfindung an sich, nämlich welches technische Problem mit welchen Mitteln gelöst wurde),“

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„wenigstens ein Ausführungsbeispiel der Erfindung,“

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„die mit der Erfindung erzielten Vorteile.“

European Patent Office – Is it patentable?

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„The European Patent Convention (EPC) states that, for an invention to qualify for patent protection, it must be novel, have an inventive step and be industrially applicable.“

European Patent Office – FAQ: How long does a granted patent stay valid?

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„The maximum term of a European patent is 20 years from its filing date. The patent may lapse earlier if the annual renewal fees are not paid or if the patent is revoked by the patentee or after opposition proceedings.“

European Patent Office – FAQ: How long will it take for my European patent application to be published?

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„Your application will be published 18 months after the filing date or the earliest priority date. You may, however, request that it be published earlier.“

European Patent Office – FAQ: What are patents and what do they protect?

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„A patent is an exclusive right, meaning the patent owner can decide who can use the patented invention and how, and prevent third parties from exploiting it commercially. In return, the owner has to fully disclose the invention when applying for the patent.“

WIPO – How to Protect Inventions through Patents

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„In virtually all countries, patents are granted on a first-to-file basis. Simply stated, if your competitor files a patent application on a specific invention, and you file a patent application on the same invention one day later, you will not get a patent.“

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„Once a patent is granted by the patent office, you must pay maintenance or renewal fees, generally on an annual basis, to maintain the effect of the patent.“

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„sufficiency of disclosure: the invention must be disclosed in an application in a manner sufficiently clear and complete to enable a person with ordinary skill in the relevant technical field to carry it out. In some countries, the “best mode” for practicing the invention must be disclosed. The claims must be supported by the description.“

DPMA – Gebühren für Patentschutz

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„Patentgebühren im Überblick Gebührenart Höhe
Anmeldegebühr bei elektronischer Anmeldung (inklusive 10 Patentansprüche) 40 Euro
- für jeden weiteren Anspruch erhöht sich die Gebühr um 20 Euro
Anmeldegebühr bei Anmeldung in Papierform (inklusive 10 Patentansprüche) 60 Euro
- für jeden weiteren Anspruch erhöht sich die Gebühr um 30 Euro
Rechercheantragsgebühr 300 Euro
Prüfungsgebühr nach gestelltem Rechercheantrag 150 Euro
Prüfungsgebühr ohne vorherigen Rechercheantrag 350 Euro
Jahresgebühr 3. Patentjahr 70 Euro
Jahresgebühr 4. Patentjahr 70 Euro
Jahresgebühr 5. Patentjahr 100 Euro
Jahresgebühr 6. Patentjahr 150 Euro
Jahresgebühr 7. bis 20. Patentjahr siehe pdf-Datei Kostenmerkblatt
Einspruchsverfahren 200 Euro“

WTO – TRIPS Agreement, Section 7, Article 39

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„(a) is secret in the sense that it is not, as a body or in the precise configuration and assembly of its components, generally known among or readily accessible to persons within the circles that normally deal with the kind of information in question“

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„For the purpose of this provision, “a manner contrary to honest commercial practices” shall mean at least practices such as breach of contract, breach of confidence and inducement to breach, and includes the acquisition of undisclosed information by third parties who knew, or were grossly negligent in failing to know, that such practices were involved in the acquisition“

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„Members, when requiring, as a condition of approving the marketing of pharmaceutical or of agricultural chemical products which utilize new chemical entities, the submission of undisclosed test or other data, the origination of which involves a considerable effort, shall protect such data against unfair commercial use. In addition, Members shall protect such data against disclosure, except where necessary to protect the public, or unless steps are taken to ensure that the data are protected against unfair commercial use.“

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„Members agree that some licensing practices or conditions pertaining to intellectual property rights which restrain competition may have adverse effects on trade and may impede the transfer and dissemination of technology.“

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„Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent Members from specifying in their legislation licensing practices or conditions that may in particular cases constitute an abuse of intellectual property rights having an adverse effect on competition in the relevant market. As provided above, a Member may adopt, consistently with the other provisions of this Agreement, appropriate measures to prevent or control such practices, which may include for example exclusive grantback conditions, conditions preventing challenges to validity and coercive package licensing, in the light of the relevant laws and regulations of that Member.“

WIPO – Trade Secrets

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„In general, any confidential business information which provides an enterprise a competitive edge and is unknown to others may be protected as a trade secret. Trade secrets encompass both technical information, such as information concerning manufacturing processes, pharmaceutical test data, designs and drawings of computer programs, and commercial information, such as distribution methods, list of suppliers and clients, and advertising strategies. A trade secret may be also made up of a combination of elements, each of which by itself is in the public domain, but where the combination, which is kept secret, provides a competitive advantage. Other examples of information that may be protected by trade secrets include financial information, formulas and recipes and source codes.“

Europäische Kommission – Trade secrets

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„The directive harmonises the definition of trade secrets in accordance with existing internationally binding standards. It also defines the relevant forms of misappropriation and clarifies that reverse engineering and parallel innovation must be guaranteed, given that trade secrets are not a form of exclusive intellectual property right.“

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„However, while large companies have the resources to manage a large portfolio of intellectual property rights, such as patents, smaller companies often cannot afford to do this - therefore their reliance on trade secrets is greater“

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„Information protected through a trade secret can be strategic for decades (for example, a recipe or a chemical compound), or ephemeral (for example, the results of a marketing study, the name, price and launch date of a new product, or the price offered in a bidding procedure).“

Gesetze-im-internet.de – GeschGehG § 2 Begriffsbestimmungen

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„Im Sinne dieses Gesetzes ist 1. Geschäftsgeheimnis eine Information a) die weder insgesamt noch in der genauen Anordnung und Zusammensetzung ihrer Bestandteile den Personen in den Kreisen, die üblicherweise mit dieser Art von Informationen umgehen, allgemein bekannt oder ohne Weiteres zugänglich ist und daher von wirtschaftlichem Wert ist und b) die Gegenstand von den Umständen nach angemessenen Geheimhaltungsmaßnahmen durch ihren rechtmäßigen Inhaber ist und c) bei der ein berechtigtes Interesse an der Geheimhaltung besteht“

Gesetze-im-internet.de – GeschGehG § 4 Handlungsverbote

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„Ein Geschäftsgeheimnis darf nicht erlangt werden durch 1. unbefugten Zugang zu, unbefugte Aneignung oder unbefugtes Kopieren von Dokumenten, Gegenständen, Materialien, Stoffen oder elektronischen Dateien, die der rechtmäßigen Kontrolle des Inhabers des Geschäftsgeheimnisses unterliegen und die das Geschäftsgeheimnis enthalten oder aus denen sich das Geschäftsgeheimnis ableiten lässt, oder 2. jedes sonstige Verhalten, das unter den jeweiligen Umständen nicht dem Grundsatz von Treu und Glauben unter Berücksichtigung der anständigen Marktgepflogenheit entspricht.“

Gesetze-im-internet.de – GeschGehG § 5 Ausnahmen

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„Die Erlangung, die Nutzung oder die Offenlegung eines Geschäftsgeheimnisses fällt nicht unter die Verbote des § 4, wenn dies zum Schutz eines berechtigten Interesses erfolgt, insbesondere 1. zur Ausübung des Rechts der freien Meinungsäußerung und der Informationsfreiheit, einschließlich der Achtung der Freiheit und der Pluralität der Medien; 2. zur Aufdeckung einer rechtswidrigen Handlung oder eines beruflichen oder sonstigen Fehlverhaltens, wenn die Erlangung, Nutzung oder Offenlegung geeignet ist, das allgemeine öffentliche Interesse zu schützen; 3. im Rahmen der Offenlegung durch Arbeitnehmer gegenüber der Arbeitnehmervertretung, wenn dies erforderlich ist, damit die Arbeitnehmervertretung ihre Aufgaben erfüllen kann.“

Gesetze-im-internet.de – PatG § 3 Stand der Technik

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„Eine Erfindung gilt als neu, wenn sie nicht zum Stand der Technik gehört. Der Stand der Technik umfaßt alle Kenntnisse, die vor dem für den Zeitrang der Anmeldung maßgeblichen Tag durch schriftliche oder mündliche Beschreibung, durch Benutzung oder in sonstiger Weise der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht worden sind.“

Gesetze-im-internet.de – PatG § 12 Vorbenutzungsrecht

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„Die Wirkung des Patents tritt gegen den nicht ein, der zur Zeit der Anmeldung bereits im Inland die Erfindung in Benutzung genommen oder die dazu erforderlichen Veranstaltungen getroffen hatte. Dieser ist befugt, die Erfindung für die Bedürfnisse seines eigenen Betriebs in eigenen oder fremden Werkstätten auszunutzen. Die Befugnis kann nur zusammen mit dem Betrieb vererbt oder veräußert werden.“

Legal Information Institute, Cornell University – 18 U.S. Code § 1839

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„(A) the owner thereof has taken reasonable measures to keep such information secret; and“

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„includes theft, bribery, misrepresentation, breach or inducement of a breach of a duty to maintain secrecy, or espionage through electronic or other means; and“

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„does not include reverse engineering, independent derivation, or any other lawful means of acquisition; and“

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„the term “Trademark Act of 1946” means the Act entitled “An Act to provide for the registration and protection of trademarks used in commerce, to carry out the provisions of certain international conventions, and for other purposes [1], approved July 5, 1946 (15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.) (commonly referred to as the ‘Trademark Act of 1946’ or the ‘Lanham Act’)”“

Legal Information Institute, Cornell University – 35 U.S. Code § 273

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„such person, acting in good faith, commercially used the subject matter in the United States, either in connection with an internal commercial use or an actual arm's length sale or other arm's length commercial transfer of a useful end result of such commercial use“

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„A defense under this section may be asserted only by the person who performed or directed the performance of the commercial use described in subsection (a), or by an entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with such person.“

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„The defense asserted by a person under this section is not a general license under all claims of the patent at issue, but extends only to the specific subject matter for which it has been established that a commercial use that qualifies under this section occurred“

Legal Information Institute, Cornell University – 35 U.S. Code § 102

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„the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention“

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„the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.“

Legal Information Institute, Cornell University – 35 U.S. Code § 122

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„each application for a patent shall be published, in accordance with procedures determined by the Director, promptly after the expiration of a period of 18 months from the earliest filing date for which a benefit is sought under this title.“

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„If an applicant makes a request upon filing, certifying that the invention disclosed in the application has not and will not be the subject of an application filed in another country, or under a multilateral international agreement, that requires publication of applications 18 months after filing, the application shall not be published as provided in paragraph (1)“

Legal Information Institute, Cornell University – 35 U.S. Code § 154

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„Subject to the payment of fees under this title, such grant shall be for a term beginning on the date on which the patent issues and ending 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, if the application contains a specific reference to an earlier filed application or applications under section 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c), from the date on which the earliest such application was filed.“

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„Every patent shall contain a short title of the invention and a grant to the patentee, his heirs or assigns, of the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States, and, if the invention is a process, of the right to exclude others from using, offering for sale or selling throughout the United States, or importing into the United States, products made by that process, referring to the specification for the particulars thereof.“

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„A copy of the specification and drawing shall be annexed to the patent and be a part of such patent.“

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„Guarantee of prompt patent and trademark office responses.—Subject to the limitations under paragraph (2), if the issue of an original patent is delayed due to the failure of the Patent and Trademark Office to—“

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„Guarantee of no more than 3-year application pendency.—Subject to the limitations under paragraph (2), if the issue of an original patent is delayed due to the failure of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to issue a patent within 3 years after the actual filing date of the application under section 111(a) in the United States or, in the case of an international application, the date of commencement of the national stage under section 371 in the international application, not including—“

Report on Prior User Rights (Tegernsee-Gruppe, gehostet beim USPTO)

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„A prior user right is the right of a third party to continue the use of an invention where that use began before a patent application was filed for the same invention.“

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„Prior user rights are provided for by the different national legislations and such provisions in national legislation only have national effect. All national delegations of the Tegernsee Group provide for prior user rights and defences through their respective national law.1 National provisions on prior user rights have common ground, but also have differences in the conditions under which they may be acquired. This report will compare the provisions of Denmark, Germany, France, the UK, Japan and the U.S and will go on to set out the common ground and the differences.“

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„It should be taken into account that the main purpose of prior user rights is to strike a balance between the effects of the first-to-file principle on the one hand and third party considerations on the other.“

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„By allowing the earlier user/inventor to continue uninterrupted commercial use of the invention while also allowing the later inventor to obtain a patent enforceable against all others, the prior user right embodies a balance between the equitable economic interests of the earlier user and the larger goal of the patent system in incentivizing the enrichment of the fund of human knowledge.“

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„Most notably perhaps, the AIA expands the defense beyond just business methods to cover all technologies“

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„Under Section 273 as amended by the AIA, commercial use giving rise to a prior use defense must take place more than one year before the earlier of either the filing/priority date of the application in question or any disclosure preceding that date that qualified as an exception to prior art, i.e., a qualifying grace period disclosure.“

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„Both public and secret acts are eligible for prior user rights; however if the act was public and amounted to an enabling disclosure then it would constitute prior disclosure of the invention, thereby depriving the invention of novelty and rendering the patent invalid“

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„The prior user right does not entail an exclusive right and the prior user thus has no right to prevent other third parties from exploiting the invention.“

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„Prior user rights exempt the concrete use enacted or prepared before the patent’s application or priority, but no further adjustments or alterations within the patent’s scope of protection.“

NBER – Cohen, Nelson & Walsh: Protecting Their Intellectual Assets (Working Paper 7552)

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„Based on a survey questionnaire administered to 1478 R&D labs in the U.S. manufacturing sector in 1994, we find that firms typically protect the profits due to invention with a range of mechanisms, including patents, secrecy, lead time advantages and the use of complementary marketing and manufacturing capabilities. Of these mechanisms, however, patents tend to be the least emphasized by firms in the majority of manufacturing industries, and secrecy and lead time tend to be emphasized most heavily. A comparison of our results with the earlier survey findings of Levin et al. [1987] suggest that patents may be relied upon somewhat more heavily by larger firms now than in the early 1980s. For the protection of product innovations, secrecy now appears to be much more heavily employed across most industries than previously. Our results on the motives to patent indicate that firms patent for reasons that often extend beyond directly profiting from a patented innovation through either its commercialization or licensing. In addition to the prevention of copying, the most prominent motives for patenting include the prevention of rivals from patenting related inventions (i.e., patent blocking’), the use of patents in negotiations and the prevention of suits. We find that firms commonly patent for different reasons in discrete’ product industries, such as chemicals, versus complex’ product industries, such as telecommunications equipment or semiconductors. In the former, firms appear to use their patents commonly to block the development of substitutes by rivals, and in the latter, firms are much more likely to use patents to force rivals into negotiations.“

The Coca-Cola Company – Coca-Cola’s Formula Is at the World of Coca-Cola

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„After Dr. John S. Pemberton invented Coca‑Cola in 1886, the formula was kept a close secret, shared only with a small group and not written down. In 1892, Asa Candler became the sole proprietor of Coca‑Cola after purchasing the rights to the business. Then, in 1919, Ernest Woodruff and a group of investors purchased the company from Candler and his family. To finance the purchase, Woodruff arranged a loan, using the secret formula as collateral. He asked Candler’s son to write the formula down and placed the paper in a vault in the Guaranty Bank in New York until the loan was repaid in 1925. At that point, Woodruff reclaimed the secret formula, returned it to Atlanta and placed it in Trust Company Bank, now SunTrust, where it remained for 86 years until its recent move to the World of Coca‑Cola.“

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„Though the actual secret formula is destined to remain a mystery to most of the world, the exhibit, “The Vault of the Secret Formula,” offers insight into the intrigue behind Coca‑Cola’s most closely guarded trade secret.“

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„To finance the purchase, Woodruff arranged a loan, using the secret formula as collateral“

The Coca-Cola Company (Investor Relations) – Pressemitteilung: Coca-Cola Moves Its Secret Formula to the World of Coca-Cola (08.12.2011)

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„For the First Time Vault Containing Company’s Most Valuable Trade Secret On Public Display“

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„While The Coca-Cola Company started with this secret formula 125 years ago, the secret to its success has grown far beyond the formula today.“

U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney N.D. Georgia – Ex-Employee of the Coca Cola Company and Co-Defendant Sentenced for Stealing Trade Secrets (23.05.2007)

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„were sentenced today by United States District Judge J. Owen Forrester on a charge of conspiring to steal and sell trade secrets of The Coca-Cola Company.“

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„On June 27, 2006, an undercover FBI agent offered to buy the remaining trade secret items for $1.5 million from “Dirk.”“

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„WILLIAMS was sentenced to 8 years in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution.“

This American Life, Episode 427 „Original Recipe“, Transkript

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„Coke’s official line on this these days is that they simply do not talk about how many people know the recipe. Though the reason that most of us think that of it as one of the biggest trade secrets in the world is probably because that’s the story Coca-Cola likes to tell“

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„The company has always said, and as far as I know it’s true, that only two people at any given time know how to actually mix the 7x flavoring ingredient. And that these people never travel on the same airplane in case it crashes.“

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„Incredibly there was no written formula and the labels had been removed from all the containers of the ingredients.“

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„New York Times May 2, 1993, the year Mark’s book was published, Coca-Cola calls the recipe in his book, quote, “The latest in a long line of previous unsuccessful attempts to reveal a 107 year old mystery.”“

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„Because if they sued anything pertaining to the formula, then they would have to then produce the formula in order to say that what you were doing was an infringement on their formula. And they will never do that.“

Chartreuse Diffusion – History of the Chartreuse Liqueurs

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„A liqueur made with 130 plants, this number being the only known element of a recipe that retains all its mystery, Chartreuse has carried its fame very far : that of the Chartreuse Order which developed and perfected the recipe in its different versions but , also, that of a mountain range from which the emblematic and refined drink has borrowed its name. The Chartreuse liqueur has long been able to open up to the world, almost fitting into the register of popular “culture” in many places around the world. But, as originally and outside the period when the expelled Carthusians (Chartreuse monks) were outside France, it is in the Chartreuse mountain range that its production takes place. Very close to the Monastery of the Grande Chartreuse where the only two people who know “the” secret formula reside.“

National Geographic – Everything you need to know about Chartreuse

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„Secrecy still surrounds the recipe, with only three monks allowed to oversee the production of the yellowy green liqueur — with each one only being privy to two-thirds of the recipe and bound to a vow of silence.“

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„The exact origin of the manuscript — an alchemic labyrinth of secret symbols and cryptic codes — remains unknown, and it took the Grande Chartreuse monastery more than a century to decipher it and begin distilling the enigmatic elixir.“

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs – Department of Justice Wins Significant Remedies Against Google (02.09.2025)

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„Today, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division won significant remedies in its monopolization case against Google in online search. In United States et al. v. Google, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia prohibited Google from entering or maintaining exclusive contracts relating to the distribution of Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app; ordered Google to make certain search index and user-interaction data available to rivals and potential rivals; and ordered Google to offer search and search text ads syndication services to enable rivals and potential rivals to compete.“

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„The court’s ruling today recognizes the need for remedies that will pry open the market for general search services, which has been frozen in place for over a decade. The ruling also recognizes the need to prevent Google from using the same anticompetitive tactics for its GenAI products as it used to monopolize the search market, and the remedies will reach GenAI technologies and companies.“