Peculiarities of legal protection of commercial secrets

Knowledge is one of the main assets for business entities including but not limited to start-ups or research institutions, they are investing in to it and there is a need to protect it. Keeping it as a trade secret is one of the main options for protecting it. For achieving work goals at first the ambiguity of trade secrets is described, their relation to intellectual property is researched in order to determine essential features why trade secrets are not considered as intellectual property rights. The main object of this work – trade secrets protection specifics, are analysed in three matters: at first, it is analysed from the Republic of Lithuania (LR) legislation protection aspect. Main legislation (Civil code, Labour code, the Law of Competition) provisions in the trade secrets protection area are analysed, their definition, clarity and possibilities for remedies applications is evaluated in order to determine the effectiveness of the protection granted. The analysis of legal norms has shown, that the regulation should be modified because it is not clear and efficient in order to consider it absolutely effective. Secondly, it is analysed from the international trade secrets protection aspect regarding specific contracts (TRIPS, UTSA) and foreign countries (France, Germany) regulatory basis by determining the absence of unified protection. Thirdly, the proposal of European Commission for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure and the draft of directive (which was accepted by Legal Affairs Committee and will be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole) aspect. The contents of both documents is analysed by discussing essential aspects in order to ensure trade secrets protection. Accordingly the main differences of mentioned documents is presented together with the influence for LR legislation – the main disadvantages of legal regulation is specified compared to the proposed directive which should be changed or adapted in case of implementation of the new directive