Know-how is valuable business knowledge; it may or may not be a trade secret, and may or may not be patentable. Know-how often refers to technical, scientific, or engineering fields. An engineer who specialized in industrial coatings once said, “I am more than willing to show my ideas and inventions to potential partners and investors. They could try to steal my ideas, but they do not have the know-how that comes from experience to make these things work without me.” Know-how can also be more general in character, encompassing marketing and MANAGEMENT skills as well as simple business advice. Legal protection for know-how is limited. Unlike PATENTs, TRADEMARKs, and COPYRIGHTs, individuals cannot obtain exclusive rights to know-how by registration. Knowledge is a public good; once it is made available to others, it can generally be used by anyone and is nearly impossible to retrieve. Because know-how is so difficult to protect, preserving its confidentiality is often an important business strategy. If competitors gain access to critical knowledge about a firm’s production or operations, the firm loses some of its competitive advantage. For example, one of Wal-Mart’s secrets of success is its inventory management system. When Amazon.com hired away some of Wal-Mart’s inventory-management executives, Wal-Mart sued, claiming loss of company know-how. Similarly, one of the best-kept business secrets is the Coca- Cola formula. Only a few people in the company know the formula, a necessary precaution to prevent loss of this critical knowledge. Protecting business know-how is usually done through confidentiality CONTRACTs, civil law, and use of trade-secret law. It is often difficult to sue for the loss of know-how, so employers’ best efforts focus on protecting knowledge. In the United States, the ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE ACT (1996) created criminal penalties for misappropriation of financial, business, scientific, technical, economic, or engineering information whose owner has taken reasonable measures to keep it secret and whose “independent economic value derives from being closely held.” MARKET INTELLIGENCE experts advise that people are the sources of information, and the best protection of know-how is clear instructions to company personnel.