Recently published study on the legal protection of trade secrets in the context of the data economy (GRO/SME/20/F/206), by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (European Commission), clearly shows that:

• while the significance of data sharing has been and will be increasing, the protection and appropriation of shared data with trade secrets is lagging; firms are often not aware that they may apply the regime of the trade secrets protection for protecting information revealed to other parties in negotiations, business talks. etc.; contractual liability is usually applied to prevent an unfair use of the shared information;
• only a few firms are truly familiar with the application of trade secrets in the context of shared data;
• because of the lack of developed jurisprudence, many firms are uncertain regarding the exact meaning of some of the terminology which defines trade secrets as well as regarding actual enforceability.

As stated in the summary, this might partly be attributed to the rather young age of the EU Trade Secrets Directive (TSD) and still developing IP management practices of many firms that take due account of trade secrets.

The study analyses to what extent the EU legal framework on trade secret protection applies to data which is shared across firms and organisations and the application of trade secrets by European firms in practice.

What does the legal protection of trade secrets look like in Poland? 

Legal regulation on trade secrets protection is included in art. 11 of the Act dated 16 April 1993 on Combating Unfair Competition which has been harmonized with the EU Trade Secrets Directive (TSD). Court matters are still quite rare nevertheless, there is quite a lot jurisprudence on protection of trade secrets in the public procurement matters as well as in the context of access to public information. More and more cases are also initiated in the Court for Intellectual Property matters in Warsaw which is the only court in Poland competent to examine trade secrets matters of technical nature. The subject matter of the European Commission Study should be of highest interest for firms operating in Poland in the context of data sharing in business communication.