The government plans to amend regulations concerning trade secrets

On 4th January 2018 the draft amendment to the Suppression of Unfair Competition Act was published on the Government’s Legislation Centre’s (Rządowe Centrum Legislacji) website.

The main purpose of the amendment is to implement the directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure.

The draft explicitly states that an act of unfair competition shall be, among others, mere acquisition of other parties’ information constituting business secrets. Moreover, the project changes the statutory features of an act of unfair competition, e.g. by eliminating a “transfer” of other parties’ business secrets. However, the drafters claim that this is only a minor editorial change - unlawful transfer of other parties’ business secret will still be unlawful (as “publication”). 

The draft law is available under the following link:
http://legislacja.rcl.gov.pl/projekt/12306806