The harmonization and protection of trade secrets in the EU: – An Appraisal of the EU Directive

The growing significance of trade secrets (TS) in today's society and business has unleashed an unprecedented boom in litigation, legislation, and in media and scholarly attention. Many factors contribute to this development, such as the rise of digitalization & artificial intelligence, increasing mobility, a changing intellectual property (IPR) landscape, the greater flexibility and applicability of TS in comparison to other IPR, international threats, and new legislation. While this is clearly a global trend, this book focuses on the new EU Trade Secrets Directive (with a view also to developments in the US). The book describes and analyses the national implementations of the Directive and studies the effects of the new regime regarding contentious issues and crucial sectors. Authors includes leading EU and US legal scholars covering a wide range of specializations in legal aspects of TS protection and its impact on different technological sectors.