system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why companies can't chemical ananalyze, for example, Pepsi, and produce identical mixture on their own?

I believe some things are patented out - but then are not a secret. For example WD-40 oil is not patented and its recipe is secret, why people just don't analyze it's contents to produce a copy and gain huge cash?
gpt
Well there is no machine that you can pop a sample of something into and get out it's chemical composition. Qualitative analysis (the process of finding out what a sample of something is made of) is a long and difficult process that is normally very specific to the material you are looking at. Not only that but this process would only tell you what exists in the sample, not any manufacturing techniques used to create the sample.

And brands like WD-40 use their reputations just as much, if not more, than their actual product to make money. Even if someone was able to recreate WD-40 it would not sell **nearly** as much as the same product just with a WD-40 label.

AND most of the time competing companies do not want the secret formula to their competitors products. For example Pepsi was offered the formula to Coke-a-Cola multiple times and turned it down every single time instead turning over the people who offered to sell the information to the FBI and Coke-a-Cola. 

Edit: Unrelated but Pepsi is actually the tastier product according to a double blind taste test done in the 70s. Coke-a-Cola still out sells Pepsi mostly due to branding and reputation.