NDA vs Patent

Following our post dated 24.08.2025, I would like to explain in more detail the difference between patent protection of inventions and their protection by non-disclosure agreements.
A patent serves as an asset for attracting investment, as it can be valued, sold, pledged, or contributed to authorised (share) capital, etc.	A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), first and foremost, is an instrument for protecting against information leaks, for example, through employees of the company producing the trial sample.
In such high-technology spheres as pharmaceuticals or instrument engineering, without patent protection, it is often impractical to invest large sums in the development of new products.	Non-disclosure agreements are used in such fields as software (for example, algorithms) or the protection of recipes, which is much cheaper than patenting.
A patent prevents simple copying of an invention after it has been placed on the market (including reverse engineering, i.e. disassembly of a device for the purpose of copying it).	A non-disclosure agreement often becomes useless after the product is placed on the market.
Thus, a patent and a non-disclosure agreement address similar, but nevertheless different tasks, often complementing each other.