In the context of protecting intellectual property, briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of trade secrets.

Answers will vary. The primary advantage of having a trade secret is that disclosure is not required, as with, for instance, a patent application. A second advantage is that there are no filing costs; the company merely needs to keep the information secure. Finally, unlike patents, trade secrets have no time limit. They last as long as the information remains secure.
The primary disadvantage of trade secrets is that they often don't stay secret for very long if the company has a tangible product. Competitors can simply purchase and reverse engineer the product to discover how it is made. For instance, tobacco companies have reverse-engineered competitor's changes in design and ingredients in at least 100 cases. Moreover, competitors can patent the trade secret once they discover it, locking the original company out of its own invention. Finally, because trade secrets are not officially recognized, legal remedies are difficult to find once secrets have been breached.
The section "Trade Secrets" on page 226 discusses trade secrets and its advantages and disadvantages. Students can use this section to make their own interpretation and answer this question.