Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Sandeen, Sharon K. --- "The Limits of Trade Secret Law: Article 39 of the TRIPS Agreement and the Uniform Trade Secrets Act on which it is Based" [2011] ELECD 561; in Dreyfuss, C. Rochelle; Strandburg, J. Katherine (eds), "The Law and Theory of Trade Secrecy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: The Law and Theory of Trade Secrecy

Editor(s): Dreyfuss, C. Rochelle; Strandburg, J. Katherine

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847208996

Section: Chapter 20

Section Title: The Limits of Trade Secret Law: Article 39 of the TRIPS Agreement and the Uniform Trade Secrets Act on which it is Based

Author(s): Sandeen, Sharon K.

Number of pages: 31

Extract:

20 The limits of trade secret law: Article 39
of the TRIPS Agreement and the Uniform
Trade Secrets Act on which it is based
Sharon K. Sandeen*


I. INTRODUCTION

All intellectual property rights (IPRs) have limits that are designed to
achieve a balance between the benefits of IPR protection and other public
policy objectives.1 During the negotiations leading to the adoption of the
World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Law (`TRIPS Agreement'),2 the need for bal-
anced intellectual property policies was raised on numerous occasions by
a variety of participants, notably in detailed submissions by Brazil in late
1988 and Peru in late 1989.3 Nonetheless, while U.S. negotiators acted
to ensure that trade secrecy was covered by the TRIPS Agreement, there
was little discussion of the need for limitations to ensure that trade secret
protection would not unduly conflict with principles of free competition or
the objectives of patent and copyright law.
While it is tempting to suggest that the lack of attention to limitations
on trade secret protection was the result of the developed world's desire to
expand the scope of IPRs, it can also be explained by the need for com-
promise in international negotiations and a concomitant willingness to


* Professor of Law, Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota.
1
For a critique of the balance arguments in the context of international
norm-making, see Graeme B. Dinwoodie, The International Intellectual Property
System: Treaties, Norms, ...