New protection for trade secrets
New statutory definition
The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/597) (TSER) (see Follow up ) came into force on 9 June 2018, implementing the EU Trade Secrets Directive (TSD). Most significantly, there’s a statutory definition of a “trade secret”, i.e. information which: (a) is secret, in the sense that it’s not generally known among, or readily accessible to, persons within the circles that normally deal with this kind of information; (b) has commercial value because it’s secret: and (c) has been subject to reasonable steps by the holder to keep it secret.
Pro advice. This definition is wider than what’s regarded as a trade secret under UK case law, as it seems to include some types of confidential information. It may give you more protection against confidential information misuse by ex-employees.
Limited impact
As the government believes most of the TSD ’s provisions already exist in UK law, the TSER only address those areas where further changes need to be made to UK law to ensure compliance. These changes mainly concern limitation periods, procedural issues for the courts and the availability of certain remedies.
Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018
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