The UKIPO has this week issued a consultation paper on the proposed UK Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018. The consultation seeks the views of interested parties on the draft Regulations which are intended to transpose the EU Trade Secrets Directive ((EU) 2016/943) into UK law. The consultation will run until 16 March 2018 with a view to the UK Government publishing its response within six weeks of the end of the consultation period. The deadline for implementation of the Directive into national law is 9 June 2018. A link to the Consultation can be found here.
There has been lots of debate since the Directive was published as to what changes to UK law would be necessary to bring it into line with the Directive. Many thought that UK law was largely consistent with the Directive and represented the gold standard of trade secret protection in the EU. At first glance, the changes proposed by the Regulations appear to be more wide ranging than expected. Hogan Lovells has authored a Report for the European Commission on trade secret protection across the EU.
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