Trade secrets are very different from patents , trademarks and copyrights .
You can not maintain both a patent and a trade secret on the same invention - they are mutually exclusive. A patent confers exclusive rights to prevent others from making, using or selling the patented subject matter. The trade off is that the patent, once issued, is published for the entire world to know. Thus, nothing in an issued patent can be a trade secret by definition. Until a patent issues, the Patent and Trademark Office retains the patent application subject to trade secret protection and will not disclose the information, because there is always the possibility that a patent will not issue.