Trade secrets as well as patents play an important role to develop your business. If you would like to protect valuable information as trade secrets, you shall manage them based on the Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act.
IP experts of INPIT offer free-of-charge consultation services via e-mail, telephone or face-to-face interview. Experts would help you in making rules and systems for the information management in a company. It is also possible to dispatch IP experts to hold a free seminar in your company at your request.
IP experts answered over 400 questions a year, 75% of which were matters concerning information management. SMEs also consulted IP experts about incidents leaking confidential information.
Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act defines following information as trade secrets;
Be managed as secret.
Useful information technically or economically for business.
Not be known publicly.
This Act bans you from stealing trade secrets as well as using and disclosing stolen trade secrets.
An Overview of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act of Japan
Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act imposes legal controls against not only infringement of trade secrets but also various actions preventing fair competition. Several examples about unfair competitions defined by the Act are depicted in the following METI web site.
Unfair Competition Prevention Act was revised in 2018 in order to protect “the restricted-offer data”. The Act protects the data which are offered to many customers who are not allowed to publish them. Because these data were not recognized as trade secrets, it inhibited companies from sharing valuable information. Japanese government expects that the revised Act promotes an innovation by sharing information.
