Trade secret protection law has gained in importance over the last two decades in many parts of the world, including Asia. Nevertheless, there have been hardly any systematic studies on this from Asian countries thus far.
In order to discuss the various regulatory approaches to secrecy protection in more depth, the Institute participated as co-organizer in the “International Conference on Trade Secret Protection”, which was jointly organized with the Singapore Management University, the National Taiwan University and the Taiwan Intellectual Property Law Association in December last year. Participants were also able to follow the event via live stream.
The program provided a detailed analysis of legislation and case law in ten Asian countries. Legal systems based on a civil law tradition, such as those of the People's Republic of China, Japan and Korea and those based on a common law tradition, like Hong Kong, India and Singapore, were represented. Issues discussed included the validity and scope of confidentiality and non-competition clauses, the burden of proof for trade secrets and infringement and criminal prosecution of trade secret infringement.
To serve Asian countries as a benchmark for their own legislative process, the conference also focused on the approach of the European Union. Luc Desaunettes-Barbero, who attended the conference online as a representative of the Institute, gave an overview of trade secret protection law in the European Union and illustrated this with examples of its transposition in certain Member States, particularly Germany and France.