– Act on Protection of Business Secrets (ACT-2020-03-27-15), in force since January 1, 2021.

Note: the Penal Code may also be applicable, depending on the circumstances.

– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act.
– WTO's TRIPS Agreement, since January 1, 1995.

Definition: a trade secret is information which (1) is secret in the sense that the information is not in its entirety nor as it is composed/joined or sorted, commonly known or easily available; (2) is of commercial value because it is secret; (3) the proprietor has made reasonable measures in order to keep it secret.  Note: general experiences and skills which an employee has acquired during a term of employment is not considered as business secret. However, any use of confidential information from a previous employment into a new one may be held to violate the Protection Act or the Penal Code. A proprietor of a business secret is a physical person or a judicial person which rightfully controls a business (or trade) secret.

Assignment - licensing: trade or business secrets may be transferred between two parties through NDAs, Know-How Agreements, licenses or other business or trade agreements between the parties. If a license agreement is established, e.g. in connection with patent rights, it should be observed that any trade secret is not revealed in any official record of the license. Further, in the processing of a patent application, the applicant may be entitled to claim that certain portions of a processing document are considered a business/trade secret and must not be made publicly available by the NO-PTO.

Infringement: nobody must infringe or violate a trade secret by obtaining knowledge about or be in possession of a business/trade secret by (a) non-rightfully gain access to, take away or copy documents or objects; (b) other behavior in violation of good business (or trade) traditions. Thus, infringing a business secret by non-rightfully using or conveying the trade secret which a person or legal entity has obtained knowledge about or be in possession of is prohibited (i) in violation of the conditions (a), (b); (ii) in connection with a service, entrustment or business relationship; (iii) in accordance with law and regulations. The Act also mentions that infringement of business rights has no excuse if the person or legal entity at the time of the acquiring, use or transfer/conveying knew or should have known that it had been obtained from someone acting in violation of (i) - (iii)).

Goods constituting infringement: it is prohibited to make, market or commercially sell goods which the person/legal entity knew or should have known constitutes infringement of a business secret, when the intention is to bring the goods into sale/trading.

Remedies for infringement: the court has several actions dependent on the circumstances, e.g. ruling that documents or objects containing business secrets are to be destroyed or delivered to the proprietor of the business secrets. As regards goods infringing the business secret, the court may require that the goods are (a) withdrawn from their trading; (b) amended so that their infringing properties are removed; (c) definitely removed from any trading; (d) handed over to the proprietor of the business secret. The court may rule that in this respect the measures should be reasonable, considering seriousness, effect of measures to be made and any third party interest. Decision of measures will on no account be based on the proprietor of the secrets having to make any compensation, and does not remove the rights of the proprietor to obtain remuneration or compensation. Measures as indicated can be put into effect if the proprietor, within three years after becoming or should have become aware of the infringement, takes legal action against the infringer.

Instead of measures as indicated, continued use by the infringer may be permitted on the condition of reasonable remuneration/compensation to the proprietor of the secret and subject to suitable conditions. Such permission may only apply if the infringer has acted in good faith, prohibition as indicated above will cause on the infringer unreasonable damage, and/or remuneration/compensation to the proprietor appears as a reasonable solution. Compensation could be determined as a reasonable license fee for the use and compensation for damage caused by the infringement and/or compensation corresponding to the profit which the infringer has received due to the infringement. Contribution to infringement will also apply, i.e. for someone enabling the infringer to violate the business secret.

Official fines and imprisonment of maximum one year may apply. Imprisonment for a maximum period of three years may apply if the infringement is considered to be a serious one. If the obtaining of knowledge of a trade secret is a result of service or employment which was terminated more than two years ago, fines or imprisonment will not apply.