In today’s world of free information, there are still people and companies that hold valuable pieces of information that are not freely available to the public. Even though science has advanced to a degree where a competitor company can just reverse engineer a product, some companies still hold their own by holding secrets that make them exclusive in the market. And they go to ridiculous extents to keep the secret a secret and have been successful at it since these secrets have not been revealed for decades.

The Hapsburg napkin folds, which is a national secret in Austria

The Hapsburg napkin fold is a national secret in Austria.

Only two anonymous government employees know how to fold a piece of napkin in the shape above. And there is no document where it is written how to fold a napkin into the shape we see. When the employees retire, they pass on the information to the new employees who will then fold the napkins laid out during state dinners.

Also, no one in the world has figured out a way to do it perfectly yet.

Stock market trading software that helps financial institutions by predicting stock market trends

Stock market software are extremely valuable. Most of the top financial institutions have their trademarked software, which they use to invest smartly and make huge gains in the process.

The access to such software is highly regulated, and one such computer programmer lifted some lines of this code and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.