Today’s blog post is the first in a series where we spotlight international issues in trade secret law, in particular, answering practical questions and providing insights into the application and interpretation by Belgian courts of specific aspects of the Belgian Trade Secrets Act.

On August 24, 2020, a dedicated few celebrated the second anniversary of the entry into force of the 2018 Belgian Trade Secrets Act.^[i] With this new law, the Belgian legislator transposed the 2016 EU Trade Secrets Directive^[ii] into national law. The Trade Secrets Directive is the result of a European Commission regulatory initiative, taken after a number of issues were revealed by studies conducted at its request.^[iii] In particular, it was found that EU Member States lacked a uniform approach to trade secrets and that some of them had very limited trade secrets protection, which in turn hindered innovative cooperation between companies across the EU. In addition, trade secrets were perceived as important assets for companies in terms of innovation and competitiveness. This was particularly true for SMEs which, given their more limited resources, attach greater importance to trade secrets than to other, generally more expensive, forms of protection (such as patents). The need for effective and coherent protection had thus increased significantly in recent years, partly because of an increased risk of misappropriation and abuse of confidential business information. The Trade Secrets Directive aimed to harmonize the rules across the EU and to ensure that companies could rely on both substantive and enforcement provisions, with the ultimate goal of achieving an adequate and consistent level of civil measures to protect trade secrets throughout the internal market.^[iv]  The Belgian Trade Secrets Act and its application in case law should be seen in this specific context.Continue Reading International Issues in Trade Secret Law Series: Parties and Procedural Options under the Belgian Trade Secrets Act