Just days after the European Union’s widely-discussed new data privacy regulations, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), took effect on May 25, 2018, another EU-wide legal change quietly occurred. (And if you’re still puzzling through GDPR compliance, fear not:  We have plenty of resources for you here.)

But on to the less familiar date:  June 9, 2018, was the deadline for EU member states to comply with the new Directive on the Protection of Trade Secrets.  As we’ve reported before, the European Parliament adopted the Directive in 2016 to harmonize national laws regarding trade secrets protection.  Under the Directive, trade secrets owners across Europe should enjoy increased protection and uniformity—welcome news, given that the laws have historically differed significantly from country to country.