Following a series of EU trilogue meetings, a provisional agreement on new rules to provide legal redress against theft or misuse of trade secrets was reached by the Council of Ministers in December 2015 and  endorsed by the European Parliament on 14 April 2016.

The aim of this conference is to give an overview of the main features of the EU Directive on Trade Secrets and to offer a discussion platform on its impact in practice for companies and their employees.

Key topics

• Scope of protection and limitations of the EU Directive on Trade Secrets
• Main consequences in practice as regards workers’ rights and mobility, and their freedom of expression
• Ensuring the right balance between trade secrets protection and disclosure of information
• Definition of trade secrets, burden of proof and reverse engineering
• Trade secrets in national court proceedings