This is one of those things for which there is no easy answer. But I'll bring up something here :

Slick 50.

For those overseas or simply not into cars, Slick 50 was an oil additive for higher mileage cars that improved performance ad extended the life of the engine. It was effective, in fact orders of magnitude more effective than anything that was on the market.

Its effects were measurable, more compression and power. Easier starting. Sometimes people claimed it made it run cooler but I don't personally know of that ad don't really see how unless the oil pressure was so low before it was about to blow anyway.

The secret to Slick 50's success was PTFE resin, which is a for of Teflon actually. When put int the crankcase it coated and impregnated yous bearing surfaces, valve guides, piston rings and of course the gears in the oil pump.

The had a pretty good run with their patent, I don't remember how many years. During that time they had PTFE resin locked up and nobody else could sell it. They charged like fifty bucks a quart for it. And people swore by it, they were happy to pay that because the **** simply is that good.

The patent ran out eventually and others came out with PTFE resin based engine treatments. Some people stuck with the original and even though they did the price went down. They no longer had a lock on the market.

When it comes to Deoxit, people make the mistake of thinking it is removig the oxidation. It is not. The active ingredient actually removes the oxidant (usually oxygen) from the metal. A chemist calls this type of chemical a reducer. They come in many forms, but for this application you need one that is totally non conductive, or at least becomes that way, and that is safe for plastics.

There are pots, sliders specifically, I have noticed on equalizers that you just can't use anything on. Some parts of them are that cheap white almost translucent plastic, I don't know if it is a type of nylon or styrene or what, but ANYTHING makes them sticky. And I mean anything. I tried TF based cleaner (back when you could get it), LPS2, WD40 and who knows what else. I am starting to think the propellant in the can is what attacks the stuff.

O late, I am having a problem with rotary encoders. Clean it and a few days later it is again operating erratically. I looked for them online and they seem to be like $20+, and not even optical. I can tell on the scope, when the pulse drops to zero it really is zero.

But we'll burn that bridge when we come to it. All of the units need a factory modification before they can be shipped or they are all going to fry. I have to burn that bridge first. At what I make now, I'll get around to it when I damn well please.

Trade secrets are bad enough in this field. So what I am getting is that this stuff is so secret that they won't even patent it ? If they patented it you can get the formula.

The REAL problem is when they apply it to foods. Realize that in this country they do not tell you they put a virus in milk that attacks the bacteria that makes it go sour. Extends the shelf life. I know there is zero evidence of this on the net but you can prove it yourself. Just leave some milk out of the fridge and let it go bad. It no longer goes sour, it goes bitter.

And these milk companies in all their good hearts tried to gewt milk reclassified as a soft drink so they could add aspartame WITHOUT LABELING IT. They can already add anything they want but they have to label it. they wanted to sneak that **** into your kids without you knowing it. For what reason ? Best I can figure is to give them a sweet tooth sell more sweetener later..

And then there was a push to make it illegal to label food as "NON-GMO", their case ? That it would hurt the sales of GMO foods. And don't give me this "they are safe" ****, you cannot possibly know that. What's more, since there is more yield per acre this garbage is almost completely devoid of nutrients.

Trade secrets. This is not an easy issue because if you force complete disclosure that removes alot of the incentive. You might be able to enforce intellectual property rights here, but there is nothing stopping someone in China from copying the product and even if they can't sell it here, they can cost you the (rest of the) world market.

Maybe there is no answer and it will be a point of contention until we are extinct.