Protection of Trade Secrets Against Improper Disclosure

Abstract

trade secrets law protect all types of information and innovations without considering the need for a specific quality such as the originality or novelty of the information and without any prior review. This protection, without granting exclusive rights to the owner of the secrets, is done only against three actions, namely improper disclosure, possession and use. The subject of this article is to study the limits of protection of secrets against improper disclosure: What is meant by improper disclosure and how and by what criteria can a distinction be made between proper and improper disclosure? To this end, by studying and inferring into the laws and jurisprudence of different countries, especially the EU directive on trade secrets (2016) and US law, first, different hypotheses of disclosure of trade secrets, are categorized in five categories of disclosure to competitors, mandatory disclosures, disclosure to Foreign states, disclosure to the public and disclosing as a Whistleblower. then the criteria and conditions for recognizing proper and improper disclosures are explained separately in each case. Criteria that, if adhered to, could protect the public policy and the private interests in a balanced way.

Keywords

• trade secrets
• confidentiality
• non-disclosure agreement
• economic espionage
• freedom of expression