By Joshua L. Cohen
The Legal Intelligencer

IP exclusionary rights provide a powerful commercial advantage. Patents confer the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the patented invention. Similarly, trademarks can be enforced to prevent others from using a source identifier with goods or services in a manner likely to confuse consumers.

With trade secrets, it is a right to prevent others from misappropriating valuable secret information. These are very different rights that serve different public policies. But they all have one thing in common -- they confer a right to prevent others from some act.

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