Can intellectual property be confidential information?

Trade secrets are intellectual property (IP) rights to confidential information that can be sold or licensed. Transactional intellectual property lawyers have long treated sensitive information as a type of intellectual property.

Can intellectual property be confidential information?

Trade secrets are intellectual property (IP) rights to confidential information that can be sold or licensed. Transactional intellectual property lawyers have long treated sensitive information as a type of intellectual property. For example, patent and know-how licensing agreements are commonly seen, where the main protection given to licensed know-how may be that it is confidential information. If official support is needed for this view, it can be seen in the EU Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation, which, together with its predecessor regulations, has long recognized the licensing of know-how for competition law purposes.

To ensure that our website works well for all users, the SEC monitors the frequency of SEC and government content requests to ensure that automated searches do not affect the ability of others to access SEC and government content. We reserve the right to block IP addresses that send excessive requests. Current guidelines limit users to a total of no more than 10 requests per second, regardless of the number of machines used to send requests. The question was raised as to whether claims related to hacking of a person's telephone messages amounted to intellectual property infringement and, in particular, whether such messages amounted to “technical or commercial information” or other intellectual property within the above definition.

Under the legal system, the legal protection of trade secrets is part of the general concept of protection against unfair competition or is based on specific provisions or jurisprudence on the protection of confidential information. The WIPO Lex database is a comprehensive search tool that allows you to search for national laws and international treaties on intellectual property. The law, with regard to confidential information, is based on the equitable principle that a person who has received information confidentially cannot take advantage of it unfairly and should not use it to the detriment of the person who provided the information, without his consent. Intellectual property is the legal rights linked to intellectual activity with regard to industry, science, the literary field and the artistic field.

When seeking an action against someone for breach of trust, the primary purpose of the person filing the lawsuit is to prevent the other person from sharing sensitive information that is of value to the person taking the action. Confidential information must be used or disclosed (whether threatened or real) in an unauthorized manner and therefore cause harm to the owner, for example, by eradicating a business advantage. In general, any sensitive business information that provides a company with a competitive advantage and is unknown to others can be protected as a trade secret. While the conditions for the protection of trade secrets vary from country to country, some general rules on trade secrets law are found in Article 39 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).

The main point of this case for transactional intellectual property lawyers is the recognition given by the judgment of a far superior judge that, although confidential information may not amount to “property” in English law, it forms part of what is commonly understood by the term “intellectual property” . In my opinion, the result of this summary of the current position, as analyzed in the cases and the books, is that, while the current prevailing view is that confidential information is not strictly proprietary, it is not inappropriate to include it as an aspect of intellectual property. A trade secret is a particular type of confidential information of commercial value that gives the owner a competitive advantage. In particular, when contractors or employees leave, it is important to ensure that they will not compete with the company after they leave, in addition to signing a confidentiality agreement.

According to the legal system, the legal protection of trade secrets is part of the general concept of protection against unfair competition or is based on specific provisions or jurisprudence on the protection of confidential information. . .

Howard Morkert
Howard Morkert

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