The road towards the harmonisation of trade secrets law in the European Union
Autor | Paul L. C. Torremans |
Cargo | Prof. Dr. Paul L.C. Torremans (Lic. Jur.) (Lic. Not.) (Geaggreg. hso Rechten) (llm) (PhD), is Professor of Intellectual Property Law in the School of Law, University of Notitngham (uk), Paul |
Páginas | 27-38 |
27
the road towards
the harmonisation of trade secrets
law in the european union
Paul L. C. Torremans*
I. Starting points
Traditionally, trade secret protection has been left to the national laws of the Mem-
ber States. In part, this was due to the very varied approaches. Only recently has
there been a trend towards (minimal) harmonisation at the level of the European
Union. There are also provisions in the international treaties that are relevant,
but again these provisions have a rather narrow (harmonising) scope.
In practice trade secrets have been gaining importance though. They are no
longer seen mainly as the addendum to patent law and they have gained much
more value and importance in their own right. Stories of (electronic) industrial
espionage have only re-enforced the (perceived) need to protect trade secrets
adequately. All this has brought about renewed attention for the topic of harmo-
nisation of trade secrets law in the European Union. Previously, this was seen as
difficult and in comparison not sufficiently important. The new draft directive
now symbolises the renewed push towards harmonisation.
1. National laws - traditional approaches
Defining exactly what amounts to a trade secret is not an easy task and there is
no widely accepted definition of a trade secret. It is also important to note right
from the start that the vast majority of countries in the eu offer a remedy in this
* Prof. Dr. Paul L.C. Torremans (Lic. Jur.) (Lic. Not.) (Geaggreg. hso Rechten) (llm)
(PhD), is Professor of Intellectual Property Law in the School of Law, University of No-
titngham (uk), Paul.Torremans@Nottingham.ac.uk Professor of Intellectual Property Law,
School of Law, University of Nottingham (uk). Fecha de recepción: 3 de octubre de 2015.
Fecha de aceptación: 15 de octubre de 2015. Para citar el artículo: Torremans, P. L. C.
The road towards the harmonisation of trade secrets law in the European Union. Revis-
ta La Propiedad Inmaterial n.º 20, Universidad Externado de Colombia, julio-diciembre
2015, pp. 27-38. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18601/16571959.n20.02
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