Protecting companies’ confidential business and technical information – “trade secrets” – is becoming a major priority of the private sector and governments around the world. Trade secrets and other intellectual property and intangible assets represent the bulk of the overall value of many companies.
The authors of this whitepaper from the Center for Responsible Enterprise And Trade (CREATe.org) review the “reasonable steps” requirement for protecting trade secrets. They look at international, regional and national laws and legislation; consider the types of protections that companies have implemented; and look at court cases that examine “reasonable steps” taken by companies.
National and regional laws – perhaps unsurprisingly in a globally connected economy – continue to converge as to the elements required for proprietary information to qualify for legal protection as trade secrets. It is thus vital for companies to understand what “reasonable steps” need to be implemented to protect trade secrets in accordance with these laws, and to look to leading practices that companies around the world are using to protect such information. The very legal protections that a company hopes to secure for its proprietary information very much depend on taking such “reasonable steps.”