Hmm, obvious in retrospect, but I hadn’t thought about using patent filings as a strategy for being able to publicly talk about your work. Mostly because the patent document itself is usually written in a barely readable way, so is not that useful as a form of public communication. But since anything disclosed in a patent filing is by definition no longer a trade secret, it gives you legal cover to also talk about the same material in more public-facing forms without needing the company’s permission. So you can now give talks about it, write about it in papers or in blog posts, etc. Or at least you can after you leave the company.
Hmm, obvious in retrospect, but I hadn’t thought about using patent filings as a strategy for being able to publicly talk about your work. Mostly because the patent document itself is usually written in a barely readable way, so is not that useful as a form of public communication. But since anything disclosed in a patent filing is by definition no longer a trade secret, it gives you legal cover to also talk about the same material in more public-facing forms without needing the company’s permission. So you can now give talks about it, write about it in papers or in blog posts, etc. Or at least you can after you leave the company.