1. Imagine that you have developed a unique formula for a soft drink that, upon entering a person’s mouth, analyzes the drinker’s DNA to determine his favorite flavor, and then the drink instantly realigns its chemical composition to become that flavor. Write a two-page paper describing how you can best protect this trade secret. Will you patent it? Why or why not?

The stories of companies like KFC, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s guarding their recipes for batter, syrup, and hamburger sauce are legendary. Triple-locked safes, binding contractual agreements, spies, and counterspies are all involved. A company’s trade secrets are worth significant (sometimes staggering) amounts of money. Like any good secret, they are known to only a handful of people.