Trade Secrets

People oftentimes protect their proprietary rights by registering a patent or design (or in the past, an industrial design); sometimes, however, the fact that these are trade secrets is sufficient for entitling the same information to protection even without its registration.

Section 5 of the Commercial Torts Law, 5759-1999, defines trade secret as “business information, of any kind, which is not in the public domain and is not easily discoverable by others, the confidentiality of which gives its owner a business advantage over its competitors, provided that its owner takes reasonable measures to maintain its confidentiality.”

The law prescribes that a trade secret can be misappropriated by taking or using a secret without its owner’s consent and using it by improper means, or where the secret’s use is contrary to a contractual or fiduciary duty, or by receiving or using a trade secret without the owner’s consent, where the recipient or user knows or it is prima facie obvious, upon receipt or use, that the secret has been provided unlawfully.

The law also provides that disclosing a trade secret by reverse engineering shall not per se be considered improper means constituting violation of a trade secret. By law, anyone who infringes a trade secret may be required to pay its owner ILS 100,000 in compensation without proof of damages.

The attorneys of Gilat, Bareket & Co. counsel the firm’s clients in protecting their trade secrets and represent them in lawsuits filed against offenders or assist in defending against claims filed by third parties. The attorneys of Gilat, Bareket & Co. also counsel the firm’s clients in developing a strategy to protect trade secrets and draft confidentiality agreements and internal policies on their behalf.