Stealth mode

Last updated April 07, 2024

In business, stealth mode is a company's temporary state of secretiveness, usually undertaken to avoid alerting competitors to a pending product launch or another business initiative.^[1]^[2]

When an entire company is in stealth mode it may attempt to mislead the public about its true company goals. For example, it may give code names to its pending products.^[2] It may operate a corporate website that does not disclose its personnel or location. New companies may operate under a temporary "stealth name" that does not disclose its field of business. To enforce stealthy behavior, companies often require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements, and strictly control who may speak with the media.^[2]

At the in-company level, a stealth mode can also refer to a new project or idea that is kept secret, not just from external parties, but also from internal stakeholders in order to avoid a (premature) dismissal of the idea. Key behaviors can include soliciting informal project sponsors, engaging in covert testing of the concept, freeing up extra resources and building a "cover story" for the project.^[3]

A stealth product is a product that a company develops in secret, while a stealth company is a new company that avoids initial disclosure as to its existence, purpose, products, personnel, funding, brand name, or other important attributes. The term stealth innovation has been applied to individual projects and ideas that are developed in secret inside a company.^[3]

Background

Whereas secrecy is the historical norm in many fields of business,^[2] start-up companies often thrive on publicity and open sharing of information. Openness is common to the business culture of Silicon Valley and other technology centers, with competitors freely exchanging news of discoveries, products under development, and other company news. There is intense media interest in some business sectors, with even relatively small funding rounds covered in specialized press. Public relations is considered useful to attract interest from talent, customers, and investors, and to promote the careers of the people involved. Additionally, competitors often collaborate on projects or buy each other's products. Some companies nevertheless avoid publicity in fields that are ordinarily not secretive. Among the reasons, a small, relatively unfunded company may wish to avoid giving companies with more resources time to develop competing technologies. The very announcement that a larger or better-known company is working on a competing product may damp interest in the smaller upstart.

If the innovative company has no realistic means of protecting its new intellectual property, it may seek to obtain a "first-mover advantage" by waiting until the company or its products are ready to sell before they are announced. This gives as long a lead as possible before others may copy its products, distribution channels, brand, or other business advantages. Similarly, companies with a protectable new technology may nevertheless wish to wait until they have filed or obtained a patent.^[2]

Related Research Articles

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA), is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to. Doctor–patient confidentiality, attorney–client privilege, priest–penitent privilege and bank–client confidentiality agreements are examples of NDAs, which are often not enshrined in a written contract between the parties.

A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention. In most countries, patent rights fall under private law and the patent holder must sue someone infringing the patent in order to enforce their rights.

Trade secrets are a type of intellectual property that includes formulas, practices, processes, designs, instruments, patterns, or compilations of information that have inherent economic value because they are not generally known or readily ascertainable by others, and which the owner takes reasonable measures to keep secret. Intellectual property law gives the owner of a trade secret the right to restrict others from disclosing it.

A business plan is a formal written document containing the goals of a business, the methods for attaining those goals, and the time-frame for the achievement of the goals. It also describes the nature of the business, background information on the organization, the organization's financial projections, and the strategies it intends to implement to achieve the stated targets. In its entirety, this document serves as a road-map that provides direction to the business.

Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity, realizing or redistributing value". Others have different definitions; a common element in the definitions is a focus on newness, improvement, and spread of ideas or technologies.

A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in which the personal interest of an individual or organization might adversely affect a duty owed to make decisions for the benefit of a third party.

Anti-competitive practices are business or government practices that prevent or reduce competition in a market. Antitrust laws ensure businesses do not engage in competitive practices that harm other, usually smaller, businesses or consumers. These laws are formed to promote healthy competition within a free market by limiting the abuse of monopoly power. Competition allows companies to compete in order for products and services to improve; promote innovation; and provide more choices for consumers. In order to obtain greater profits, some large enterprises take advantage of market power to hinder survival of new entrants. Anti-competitive behavior can undermine the efficiency and fairness of the market, leaving consumers with little choice to obtain a reasonable quality of service.

The software patent debate is the argument about the extent to which, as a matter of public policy, it should be possible to patent software and computer-implemented inventions. Policy debate on software patents has been active for years. The opponents to software patents have gained more visibility with fewer resources through the years than their pro-patent opponents. Arguments and critiques have been focused mostly on the economic consequences of software patents.

Sufficiency of disclosure or enablement is a patent law requirement that a patent application disclose a claimed invention in sufficient detail so that the person skilled in the art could carry out that claimed invention. The requirement is fundamental to patent law: a monopoly is granted for a given period of time in exchange for a disclosure to the public how to make or practice the invention.

The Patent Reform Act of 2005 was United States patent legislation proposed in the 109th United States Congress. Texas Republican Congressman Lamar S. Smith introduced the Act on 8 June 2005. Smith called the Act "the most comprehensive change to U.S. patent law since Congress passed the 1952 Patent Act." The Act proposed many of the recommendations made by a 2003 report by the Federal Trade Commission and a 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences.

Patents are legal instruments intended to encourage innovation by providing a limited monopoly to the inventor in return for the disclosure of the invention. The underlying assumption is that innovation is encouraged because an inventor can secure exclusive rights and, therefore, a higher probability of financial rewards for their product in the marketplace or the opportunity to profit from licensing the rights to others. The publication of the invention is mandatory to get a patent. Keeping the same invention as a trade secret rather than disclosing it in a patent publication, for some inventions, could prove valuable well beyond the limited time of any patent term but at the risk of unpermitted disclosure or congenial invention by a third party.

Information sensitivity is the control of access to information or knowledge that might result in loss of an advantage or level of security if disclosed to others.

Bootlegging in corporate research and development is defined as "a non-formalised and non-declared (secret) bottom-up innovation process for the benefit of the bootlegger's firm." In corporate bootlegging, an employee works on a project or projects unconnected to their "official" work, and is generally allowed to do so in the understanding that it may benefit the company in some way; however, managerial approval is not always given. David A. Schon introduced the notion of bootlegging into economics and business administration literature in 1963.

Humanitarian use licenses are provisions in a license whereby inventors and technology suppliers protect in advance the possibility of sharing their technology with people in need. Thus, humanitarian use licenses set the conditions for the provision of access to innovations for people in need at a royalty free basis or at lower costs. Humanitarian use licenses assure that products of research and development stay publicly available and that at the same time the incentive function of exclusive intellectual property rights are maintained.

A stealth startup is a type of startup company that operates quietly and in silence to outsiders, avoiding public attention. This may be done to hide information from competitors, or as part of a marketing strategy to manage public image and generate expectations and interest from potential clients. A stealth startup normally operates only in stealth mode for its first few years.

Hush money is a term for an arrangement in which one person or party offers another an attractive sum of money or other enticement, in exchange for remaining silent about some illegal, stigmatized, or shameful behavior, action, or other fact about the person or party who has made the offer.

For international trade, Foreign market entry modes are the ways in which a company can expand its services into a non-domestic market.

The Lockheed Martin SR-72, colloquially referred to as "Son of Blackbird", is an American hypersonic UAV concept intended for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) proposed privately in 2013 by Lockheed Martin as a successor to the retired Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. In 2018, company executives said an SR-72 test vehicle could fly by 2025 and enter service in the 2030s.

A patent privateer or intellectual property privateer is a party, typically a patent assertion entity, authorized by another party, often a technology corporation, to use intellectual property to attack other operating companies. Privateering provides a way for companies to assert intellectual property against their competitors with a significantly reduced risk of retaliation and as a means for altering their competitive landscape. The strategy began with a handful of large operating companies. In April 2013, a group of technology companies asked the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the privateering strategy as an impediment to competition.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to patents:

References

↑ "Definition of stealth mode". PC Magazine. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
1 2 3 4 5 Mark Henricks (April 2001). "Hush Hush - stealth product development can protect innovations". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
1 2 Miller, Paddy; Wedell-Wedellsborg, Thomas (March 2013). "The Case for Stealth Innovation". Harvard Business Review .

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Definition of stealth mode". PC Magazine. Retrieved 2007-12-05.

[hush-2] 1 2 3 4 5 Mark Henricks (April 2001). "Hush Hush - stealth product development can protect innovations". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2007-12-05.

[Stealth_innovation_article-3] 1 2 Miller, Paddy; Wedell-Wedellsborg, Thomas (March 2013). "The Case for Stealth Innovation". Harvard Business Review .

[1]

[2]

[3]