The India IP SME Helpdesk team has released a new factsheet addressing trade secret protection in India. Alongside introducing a definition of trade secrets, the publication also explains why trade secrets are important for SMEs willing to internationalise to India, and how to protect them on the Indian market.
Formal intellectual property rights such as patents, copyright and trade marks are the legal tools which protect inventions, original creations and brands respectively. However, there exists a plethora of economically valuable information that enterprises hold, such as algorithms, formulas, techniques, methods, compilation of data, programs and devices, which may not be protectable under these formal IP rights.
Trade secrets thus play an ever-increasing role in a company’s business strategy and IP portfolio. While trade marks should primarily be seen as a tool to protect this auxiliary information diffused across enterprises, they can also act as an alternative to these formal IP rights in some limited cases.
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- Publication date
- 2 June 2022