Trade secrets protect sensitive business information, like unique methods or custom software, that aren't common knowledge and add value to your company because of their secrecy. By protecting Trade Secrets, you ensure your unique business strategies and proprietary knowledge remain in-house, providing you with a long-term competitive advantage.
Time to Acquire:
Immediately after taking reasonable steps to keep it secret.
Duration of Protection:
No registration required; as long as you keep the secret.
Cost:
Free of charge
Examples of Trade Secrets:
Manufacturing processes, secret recipes, customer lists, business strategies, and more.
Trade secrets are confidential information that give a business an advantage over its competitors. This can include things like formulas, designs, or practices that aren't known to the public. It's important to keep this information secret to protect the business's edge.Not all confidential information is a trade secret. In order to obtain and maintain a trade secret, active management and control is required.
Understanding how to protect a Trade Secret is important for any business that wants to keep its innovative edge and competitive advantage. They are also the right that innovators will rely on to help protect potential patentable inventions – it may be some years before a patent can be drafted and filed, so trade secrets law provides a form of protection during the research process.
To protect your Trade Secret, you need a clear plan or the right team to keep it safe in your company, complying with the legal requirements. If you need help setting up the legal side, we suggest contacting an IP Attorney.
Information that can be easily found through public sources, such as public patents or published articles, does not qualify as a trade secret.
General Knowledge and Skills:
Knowledge and skills gained when working at a company is typically not considered Trade Secrets. Given no confidential information is shared, you are allowed to take these learnings to future jobs.
Widely Known Industry Practices:
Standard practices and techniques that are commonly used in an industry are not trade secrets. For example, a widely used coding language or platform in software development.
What are the Borderline Cases?
Customer Preferences:
Detailed customer lists can be trade secrets, but general customer preferences from public sources or industry reports usually aren't considered trade secrets. These could, however, be protected as confidential information.
Idea vs. Execution:
Just having an idea for a product or service isn't a Trade Secret. But the specific plans, designs, or processes to make that idea happen could be considered trade secrets.
Benefits of Trade Secrets
Competitive Advantage
Maintains exclusivity in business insights and operations.
Cost Efficiency
Saves money and keeps the invention secret without patent registration.
No Expiration
Provides protection as long as you keep it a secret.
Enforcement
Lets you take legal action if someone steals or shares your secret.
Flexibility
Can protect a wide range of information that may not be eligible for other types of protection.
Examples of Trade Secret
Trade secrets can be used to protect a wide variety of information. For instance:
Examples of Trade Secret
Trade secrets can be used to protect a wide variety of information. For instance:
Food and Beverage
Secret recipes or formulas that give companies their edge in the marketplace.
Understanding the Legal Framework of Trade Secrets in the UAE
Protecting your trade secrets in the UAE doesn't depend on navigating a single law. Instead, think of it as assembling a toolkit from various legal resources to keep your valuable information safe.
Here’s a simple guide to help you understand and use the UAE's trade secret laws:
Trade secrets are protected as 'Undisclosed Information' in Federal Decree Law No. (11) of 2021 on the Regulation and Protection of Industrial Property Rights. The legal owner must implement certain procedures to prevent access by non-competent persons, to regulate the access of information to prevent leakage, and to prove that they exerted reasonable and adequate effort to maintain the information. The Law protects against actions contravening fair commercial practices.
The adherence to these procedures is important, as where Trade Secret matters usually fail, is due to the requirements not being followed.
Leverage DIFC’s Specialized IP Framework:
For businesses in the Dubai International Financial Centre, use DIFC Law No. 7 of 2018 (DIFC Intellectual Property Law) to safeguard your trade secrets. This law gives a clear framework for protecting intellectual property in the DIFC, with specific rules and rights for trade secret owners.
Know that the UAE follows the International Agreements (TRIPS Agreement) under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which sets global standards for protecting trade secrets. This means the UAE's laws on trade secret protection are internationally recognized and can strengthen your efforts to protect your trade secrets.
How the Trade Secret process unfolds
Here's a guide to the key stages to help turn your Trade Secret into a protected asset for your business:
