If your trade secrets get stolen in France, what protections would you have?  Most U.S. trade secret lawyers don’t have occasion to consider trade secret laws outside the United States, but there’s a whole world beyond the Uniform Trade Secrets Act!  Other countries also recognize the value of trade secrets and have taken steps to protect them.

For the first time in France, the National Assembly adopted a bill aimed at criminal sanctions for trade secret disclosure.  This bill, called the “Proposition de loi visant à sanctionner la violation du secret des affaires,” recognizes that the financial value of a company depends more and more on ideas, know-how, and trade secrets that give companies an edge over their competitors.  The bill imposes penalties of up to three years’ imprisonment, individual fines of up to €375,000 and corporate fines up to €1.875 million for the disclosure of trade secrets.  These penalties aren’t as stiff as the U.S.’s Economic Espionage Act, which was recently amended to increase individual fines up to USD $5 million and corporate fines up to USD $10 million or three times the value of the stolen trade secret to the organization READ MORE →