14 Mar How does the new Spanish law protect trade secrets?
The trade secret law aims to enable companies to defend those intangibles that are not registered in any official body, but have an unquestionable economic value for companies or even represent a significant competitive advantage over other companies in the same sector.
The new Trade Secret Law 1/2019, which transposes Directive 2016/943 of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure, has already been adopted in Spain.
This new law aims to enable companies to defend those intangibles which, unlike trademarks, patents or utility models, are not registered with any official body, but have an undoubted economic value for companies or even represent a significant competitive advantage over other companies in the sector.
Which assets will be susceptible to defence as a trade secret? The new law defines them as any type of information or knowledge of a technological, scientific, industrial, commercial, organizational or financial nature that has been kept secret or is not generally known by professionals which belong to the sector; that has a business value precisely because it is a secret and has been the object of reasonable measures by its owner to keep it secret.
Thus, the definition of secrecy includes the know-how of companies, their work methodologies and production techniques, their databases and information obtained from customers, etc.
In order to safeguard these trade secrets, the new law offers an open range of legal actions and enables to claim the adoption of provisional and precautionary measures which are necessary for their protection, in order to duly ensure the complete effectiveness of an eventual judgement.
Among these measures are the following: immediate cessation or prohibition of making any type of use of the violated trade secret or, if applicable, of producing, offering, marketing or using the violating goods or the prohibition of importing, exporting or storing these goods; the retention and deposit of goods or the preventive seizure of goods. A new judicial procedure that tries to guarantee the confidentiality of the information that is contributed to the judgment is also defined, this way we will avoid disclosure or access by third parties.
In short, the new law organizes and develops the regulations on trade secrets and offers greater protection to the owner of the same. If you want to know more… Do not hesitate to contact us!
