The Act on trade secrets implements the EU Directive on trade secrets and will strengthen the protection of trade secrets and create uniform terms for the business community across the EU.
At the same time, the new Act will gather the Danish regulation of trade secrets in one act thereby making it easier for Danish companies to get an overview of the rules on protection of trade secrets.
Definition of trade secret
As a new element, the Act contains a definition of the concept “trade secret”.
Trade secrets are defined as information which is not common knowledge among people normally involved with this kind of information. Further, the information must have a market value because it is secret, and the owner of the information must have made reasonable measures to keep the information secret.
Section 23 of the marketing practices act is abolished
When the Act on trade secrets comes into force, section 23 of the Marketing Practices Act on trade secrets and technical drawings etc. will be repealed.
Instead, the provision will be continued in section 4 of the new Act on acquisition, use and disclosure of trade secrets, and the amendment to the Marketing Practices Act will therefore not result in any actual changes of applicable law. In addition to the protection against misuse of trade secrets by persons with legal access to the business (for instance employees, consultants, guests and suppliers), section 4 of the Act on trade secrets also provides protection against misuse due to trespassing.