There are other legitimate ways of protecting trade secrets, such as requiring people to sign an NDA and/or non-compete before they see your secret sauce.

I'm not defending how the CEO behaved here - it looks very unprofessional at best - but the patent system is not the only or the best mechanism to enforce intellectual property rights.

I bring up patents because of the last line in the OP that insinuates that it wouldn't be out of character for Repl.it to react similarly to competing businesses:

> If someone with an actual commercial enterprise were to offend Replit, I shudder to think what treatment they might receive.

Patents would cover both the employee and outside competitor situations.

Can you elaborate? NDA is not legally enforceable here. What trade secret was stolen? what legal mechanism actually exists here?

NDAs are legally enforceable in all of the US. Non-competes are non-enforceable in California. NDAs however cannot be so generic that they act like NDAs and must be time limited and a few other caveats that aren't a big deal.

Non competes are unenforceable in California, and I'm unsure an NDA would apply very well. Not a lawyer though.

Why bother? Seems throwing their money around is functionality well enough.

Not sure what they'll do if another company decides to reinvent it.. but /shrug

(to be clear, not defending them at all)