The Trade Secrets Directive has been adopted by the European
Parliament and is en route to publication in the Official
Journal.
What's the issue?
The EC proposed legislation to protect trade secrets after
identifying that companies, particularly SMEs and start-ups, value
trade secrets at least as much as other forms of IP, not least
because they often lack the specialised human resources and
financial strength to pursue, manage and enforce IP. Within this
context, the Commission is concerned that the exposure of trade
secrets to theft, espionage or other misappropriation techniques
has and continues to increase. According to the Commission, this is
accompanied by the increasing risk that stolen trade secrets are
used in third party countries to produce goods that are then
imported back into the EU, thus competing with the proprietor of
the stolen information. The weakness of the EU in the face of these
threats has been the lack of uniform protection of trade
