Volume : V, Issue : III, March - 2015

PROTECTING CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION AND TRADE SECRETS AS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Suvrashis Sarkar

Abstract :

As the name itself suggests, trade secret is a secret knowledge or information which is kept confidential. This may consist of any formula, pattern, device or compilation of information which is used in one’s business and which gives opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors who do not know or use it. The subject of a trade secret must be secret, and must not be of public knowledge or of a general knowledge in the trade or business. This necessary element of secrecy is not lost, however, if the holder of the trade secret reveals the trade secret to another in confidence, and under an implied obligation not to use or disclose it. These others may include those of the holder’s employees to whom it is necessary to confide it, in order to apply it to uses for which it is intended. Often the recipient of the confidential knowledge of the subject of a trade secret is a licensee of its holder. Since some years there has been a demand for a more codified and comprehensive mechanism of protection and enforcement of the trade secrets. Some researchers have defined trade secrets from an intellectual property perspective and some from the industrial point of view. There has been therefore two demands at the same time first being the suggestion to include trade secrets as an IPR and to afford efficient protection within the IPR regime, and the second being a separate creation of sui generis system for the protection of trade secrets. This paper takes in to account trade secrets and confidential information as an integral part of business management and therefore explores the possibility of protecting this vital matter as an intellectual property of an organization.

Keywords :

Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijar  

Cite This Article:

Suvrashis Sarkar Protecting Confidential Information And Trade Secrets As Intellectual Property Indian Journal of Applied Research, Vol.5, Issue : 3 March 2015

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