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On October 4, 2015 the trade ministers of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam announced that they concluded the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). After more than five years of intensive negotiations, these countries representing a combined market of nearly 800 million people agreed to provide, among other things, enhanced protection for trade secrets, as well as efficient enforcement systems for commercial-scale trademark counterfeiting, copyright infringement, or related piracy.
Continue Reading Reports on the TPP Agreement Suggest Focus on Criminal Law to Strengthen Trade Secret Protection

[via Flickr user Craig Sunter]
[via Flickr user Craig Sunter]
On June 16, 2015 the report on the draft Trade Secrets Directive by rapporteur Constance Le Grip, was adopted by the vast majority of the members of the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (19 in favor, 2 against and 3 abstentions). Informal talks will now start with the European Council in view of reaching a first-reading agreement.

In a previous post we reviewed some of the arguments that have been used by the lobby against the Trade Secrets Directive. One of the more popular arguments, is that these rules would excessively limit the fundamental right of freedom of speech. For instance, opponents argue that the proposed rules would allow owners of trade secrets to prosecute journalists or whistle-blowers if confidential business information became public. Not surprisingly, this concern was raised with the Legal Affairs Committee.Continue Reading EU Trade Secrets Directive Debate Shouldn’t Focus on Free Speech