There are situations where it would be impossible to develop an utterly novel solution without publicity, namely any system that despite its complexity can be trivially reverse-engineered and anything whose value is dependent on the public availability of [expensive, privately-funded] research demonstrating how it works.
These edge cases exist; the problem is the patent system doesn't assume they're edge cases and instead seems to encompass anything and everything that can be classed as an invention (not to mention some concepts that are so vague and broad it's question whether they actually describe anything at all)
The problem with trade secrets companies are unwilling or unable to patent won't go away.
These edge cases exist; the problem is the patent system doesn't assume they're edge cases and instead seems to encompass anything and everything that can be classed as an invention (not to mention some concepts that are so vague and broad it's question whether they actually describe anything at all)
The problem with trade secrets companies are unwilling or unable to patent won't go away.