Public-legal protection of trade secrets

The author conducts a thorough analysis of the provisions of current national legislation aimed at protecting information constituting a trade secret in civil, commercial and administrative proceedings, as well as in criminal proceedings. The author defines the concept of “trade secret” by analyzing the relevant legislative acts of Ukraine, in particular, the content of information related to production, technological information, financial management, and other aspects of the enterprise’s activities that is not a state secret is disclosed. Such disclosure, transfer or even leakage of such information may cause significant damage to the legitimate interests of the enterprise, creating real risks to its stable functioning. The study reveals the content of administrative, civil, criminal and disciplinary liability for unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure of trade secrets. The author details the approaches provided for by Ukrainian legislation and analyzes their effectiveness in terms of practical application. Considerable attention is paid to the study of international experience in this area: the author examines public law mechanisms for the protection of trade secrets in foreign countries, including the legal framework of the European Union, with further formulation of proposals for improving the Ukrainian regulatory framework. In addition, the author examines the court practice of considering cases involving disclosure of trade secrets, and in particular, reveals that there are significant difficulties in proving the elements of an offense or crime. This necessitates further development of mechanisms for collecting and evaluating evidence in such cases. In the course of writing this article, a systematic analysis of the current Ukrainian legislation on the peculiarities of public law protection of trade secrets was carried out. To achieve this goal, the author analyzes certain articles of the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Commercial Code of Ukraine, the Labor Code, the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, as well as the Laws of Ukraine “On Unfair Competition”, “On Information”, “On Access to Public Information”, and “On the Basic Principles of State Supervision (Control) in the Field of Economic Activity”. The author proves that there is an objective need to supplement these legislative acts with provisions providing for a reliable mechanism for the protection of trade secrets, including a clear establishment of liability for their unlawful disclosure, use or obtaining.