3. How to protect your knowhow: establishing proof of the paternity and date of your know-how (probatory deposit)

The secret nature of know-how means that, more than for any other innovation, its owner must be able to prove both its existence and its content.

The preventive protective measures you put in place may sometimes prove insufficient to keep your know-how secret.

It is therefore essential to make regular probative filings, throughout the creation and development of know-how, to justify its date, content and evolution.

You can make this deposit :

• before a bailiff or notary;

• with an authors' society, such as the Société des gens de lettres (SGDL) or the Société civile des auteurs multimédia (SCAM);

• with the Program Protection Agency (PPA);

• to the Institut national de la...