The Property Concept of Trade Secrets in Anglo-American Law: An Ongoing Debate

The law of trade secrets is central to the protection of commercial interests in information. The protection of information by way of this law has certain advantages not provided by the more "traditional" laws regulating intellectual property, advantages which amplify the growing interest of modern jurisprudence in trade secrets law.1 As has been correctly pointed out, the "traditional" rules governing intellectual property are ill suited to the demands of new technological developments.2 This reality has increased the importance of the law of trade secrets, in as much as it is both more flexible and general, and thus, more easily applied to new technological situations.3