Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban on Monday said the value of patents has declined in the age of artificial intelligence, while trade secrets have become increasingly important as AI models are trained on patent applications and can be prompted to identify workarounds.
Patents Lose Value In AI Era
Responding to a post on X discussing Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella‘s “Reverse Information Paradox” essay from earlier this week, Cuban questioned whether patents still provided meaningful protection for intellectual property (IP).
“You may think your IP is protected. It’s not,” Cuban said in a post on X, adding that AI models are trained on patent applications while also being prompted to identify workarounds or competing approaches.
Is Microsoft ditching patents ? Same issue.
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 13, 2026
You may think your IP is protected. It's not. Every model is training on every patent app, and simultaneously being prompted to find workarounds or ways to compete with that patent
I think the value of a patent has dropped and… https://t.co/1vONr5vJf5
Trade Secrets Gain Importance
Cuban said he believes the value of patents has declined while the importance of trade secrets has increased as AI reshapes how companies protect proprietary knowledge.
Nadella, in his essay, said that companies “pay for intelligence twice,” while enterprises give up valuable proprietary knowledge as they use AI, in addition to the fees they pay for access to the technology.
Cuban has earlier warned that AI is changing the economics of IP. In February, he said companies would increasingly favor trade secrets over patents because publishing a patent allows large language models to train on it, making proprietary ideas easier to replicate or design around.
“Your IP is no longer yours the minute you publish it,” Cuban said earlier this year.
The New Corporate IP
Nadella said that enterprises increasingly create valuable institutional knowledge through prompts, workflows, evaluations and user corrections, adding that companies should establish clear boundaries around those assets rather than allowing them to accumulate within AI platforms.
Box Inc (NYSE:BOX) CEO Aaron Levie in response to Nadella’s essay, said enterprises will increasingly focus on protecting corporate IP in the form of decisions, insights, workflow patterns, and best practices as AI becomes more widely adopted.
Levie added that companies will need to retain ownership so the value of their information compounds as AI systems become more capable.
One of the key architectural questions of the 21st century in business will be how you maximize your corporate IP in the form of decisions, insights, workflow patterns, and best practices in a world where so much intelligence is packed into AI models.
— Aaron Levie (@levie) July 12, 2026
One might think these… https://t.co/I771X4FBc3
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com
