Hidden Details: Thoughts On Trade Secrets From The UK

As a special feature of our blog—special guest postings by experts, clients, and other professionals—please enjoy this blog entry from Jeremy Morton, an English solicitor who advises in the areas of intellectual property and data protection law. 

As reported recently by Seyfarth Shaw's lawyers in this very blog, on 13 April the European Parliament will vote on the EU Commission's proposed trade secrets directive.  Many English legal practitioners, more or less familiar with our non-statutory protections for confidential information, will assume that nothing will change when the directive is implemented.  We already protect trade secrets pretty well, unlike other EU countries for whom reform is seen as essential in order to fill legislative voids.  But if we look more closely at the EU proposals, we find plenty of uncertainties that could arise under the EU proposals.