Protection of Trade Secrets in India A Study on Select Industries in Kerala

Abstract

e concept of secrecy, finds its place in many disciplines which includes newlinepsychology, sociology, anthropology, theology, commerce, law, and technology.1 newlineSecrecy started creeping into trade, when people understood that it can be used as newlinean effective tool for economic exploitation and in order to create a separate newlineexistence from society. Trade secret even though considered as an intellectual newlineproperty does not go in tune with one of the basic objectives intellectual property newlinerights seek to achieve i.e., Information Dissemination .2 newline Disclosure, which is newlineconsidered to be the quid pro quo for granting protection to IP rights is absent in newlinetrade secrets. The propounders of property theories like Locke, Hegel and Kant have newlinenot expressly dealt with trade secrets.3 newline However, certain scholars have tried to apply newlinethese theories to justify trade secrets.4 newline Trade secrets are also justified under the newlineprinciples of unfair competition,5 newline which shows that there is more than one approach newlineto conceptualizing secrets. Apart from the philosophical justifications, economic newlinetheories also seek to justify the protection of trade secrets. Whether trade secrets fit newlineinto the Incentive Theory and whether its protection is justified while doing the newline Cost-Benefit Analysis is an important enquiry to be done in light of the available newlineeconomic literature.6 newline Similarly, whether existing economic literature weighs in newlinefavour of a legislative approach to trade secrets or whether it relies on existing newlineremedies under contract and tort law also deserves attention. newline newline