The issue of legal protection of trade secrets (also known as know-how) as a result of intellectual activity in the understanding of Russian legislation in judicial practice does not occur so often, but is relevant.
A production secret recognized as a trade secret, according to Article 1465 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, is an object of intellectual property and contains various production, technical, economic, organizational information about the results of intellectual activity in the scientific and technical field and methods of carrying out professional activities that have real or potential commercial value and are unknown to third parties.
Legal protection of know-how is expressed in the fact that a production secret is recognized by law as an independent result of intellectual activity, which means that its owner has the exclusive right to use and dispose of it in any way that does not contradict the law, for example, the manufacture and sale of products.
It should be noted that the exclusive right to a trade secret is valid only until the confidentiality of information reflecting its content is maintained, and can be protected almost indefinitely, but until confidential information is disclosed. In this case, the exclusive right is terminated for all copyright holders.
The exclusive right to a production secret can be transferred in accordance with the conclusion of an Exclusion Agreement. At the same time, its ex-copyright holder is obliged to maintain confidentiality.
According to Art. 1469, a production secret can be transferred under a licensing agreement, which is concluded between the licensor and the licensee with or without indicating its validity period. In this case, the licensor must maintain the confidentiality of the production secret until the end of the license agreement.
If a production secret is developed by an employee of an enterprise as part of his employment contract or employer’s assignment, it is an official production secret, and the exclusive right to it belongs to the employer. The contractor is obliged to maintain the confidentiality of information about know-how until the termination of the exclusive right.
It can be said that a trade secret has found a certain legal recognition in the current legislation, which allows owners of information constituting a trade secret to fully exercise their rights regarding such an object of intellectual rights and protect them in court and out of court on the basis of the current regulatory framework.
