[8] This is a similar argument to why product hardware does not constitute a trade secret because it can be bought off the shelf and taken apart. Trade Secret Protection with Strong Safety Guardrails and Technical Access Controls: Trade Secret protection remains a key layer of protection for many aspects of GenAI, but only if paired with strong guardrails and technical access controls. Patent Protection for Public Functionality: Patent protection may best protect externally observable, reproducible functionality, or the type of functionality that may be sought in a model extraction attack. Defendants also argued that the complaint never alleged that they had successfully acquired the trade secret and only attempted. As a result, patent protection may be comparatively better suited for these traditional ML approaches than for advanced LLM systems.

Source: New York Times April 07, 2026 17:25 UTC