Today's lecture consisted of going over topics such as copyrights, trade marks, and trade secrets. One thing that stood out to me was trade secrets. I remember realizing how important trade secrets were when I was in Netherlands two years ago. I was in the Heineken museum, a beer that has been circulating all around me all my life (it's my dad's favorite beer). As I walking through the museum, the different processes of how the beer was made was shown to us through movies/exhibits/etc. It was pretty interesting to see all the different vats and things put into the beer. However, there was one portion of the beer making process that we were not allowed to see. I was confused. Why wouldn't they let us see this tiny portion, the portion of them adding the yeast?
Well, it was explained to me that very day: the yeast Heineken uses and the way they use it is something unique to Heineken beers. If someone else found out what the yeast was and how they use it, the Heineken business could basically go bankrupt. All other parts of the their beer making is quite standard, and its this one small part of the entire process that makes Heineken a huge beer company. It's why most of Heineken's beers are actually brewed in the Netherlands to be exported out. It's also why Guinness makes most of it's beers in Ireland! Without trade secrets, these huge companies would not thrive since anyone could make their product!
I noticed the same thing when I was at the Guiness Brewery in Ireland! They teach you everything in the factory tour (even how to pour the perfect pint of Guiness in 112 seconds) besides the brewing of the yeast. It's crazy how one small step separates these huge companies from each other and brings them each billions of dollars of revenue every year.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have also wondered about this, specifically food products, is how do they regulate the generic brands that say they have identical ingredients as the name-brand products?
ReplyDeleteGreat post! This Heineken trade secret phenomenon has analogous examples in various other food industries too. One the comes to mind is bread. For the most part, reputable bakeries that have been around for ages tend to use a secret starter and type of yeast that has been kept a secret since the inception of the company.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, I have always assumed that the government protected recipes for companies such as Coca Cola but its interesting to hear the importance of the process for other companies as well
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