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We have reported on various aspects of the EU Trade Secrets Directive on this blog. The legal requirements for something to qualify as a trade secret, the misappropriation of trade secrets and the remedies that exist to rectify such misappropriation, as well as the protection of trade secrets during court proceedings have all been discussed. However, in order to be properly prepared for trade secrets litigation and enforcement – both in Belgium and across the EU – you also need to know what damages are potentially available for trade secrets misappropriation and more importantly what evidence will have to be shown to the court.

Continue Reading Enforcement of trade secrets in the EU: compensation and damages for trade secret misappropriation

In our next post on the EU Trade Secrets Directive 2016/943, we turn to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the EU Trade Secrets Directive was implemented in 2018 by the Act on the Protection of Trade Secrets (Wet bescherming bedrijfsgeheimen) and led to amendments to Dutch procedural law including those related to confidentiality clubs. For example, access to alleged trade secrets introduced in proceedings is granted to at least one person of the opposing party and that party’s lawyer under confidentiality restrictions. (Article 1019ib, Dutch Code of Civil Procedure). Depending on the nature of the trade secret, however, the court may order that access to certain documents be limited to only a lawyer or another authorized representative but not a representative of the opposing party. (Article 22a(3), Dutch Code of Civil Procedure).
Continue Reading The Expansion of Confidentiality Protections in Trade Secret and IP Cases in the Netherlands and Belgium

On June 28, 2019, the Luxembourgish Mémorial published the Law of June 26, 2019 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information better known as trade secrets implementing the EU Trade Secrets Directive 2016/943 after a one year delay. The recent Luxembourgish Law is a literal transposition of the EU Directive and provides a legal definition of “trade secrets,” which was up until now only defined by the courts. The EU Directive defined “trade secret” as information that (i) is secret, i.e. not publicly known or readily accessible to persons normally dealing with this kind of information, (ii) has commercial value because it is and remains a secret, and (iii) has been subject to reasonable steps under the circumstances, by the person lawfully in control of the information, to keep it secret. This definition thus includes any kind of sensitive business information that is kept secret by reasonable measures, such as market studies, business plans, pricing information, etc.
Continue Reading Luxembourg Implements the Trade Secrets Directive