| dc.description.abstract | Trade secrets are an intellectual property strategy used by businesses to protect commercially
valuable information which generates a competitive advantage. In Sri Lankan
context, the majority of small and medium-scale enterprises and traditional knowledgebased
enterprises depend on trade secret protection to protect their intellectual creations.
Secrecy, inter alia, is an integral element of trade secret protection. Protection is available
until confidential information is kept as a secret. Advancement of technology created
novel avenues to commit trade secret misappropriation requiring trade secret holders to
institute litigation. However, court proceedings being public proceedings and the lack of
legal provisions to preserve the confidentiality of trade secrets during court proceedings
makes trade secret holders reluctant to disclose confidential information as such disclosure
amounts to the expiry of trade secret protection. Said practical difficulties adversely affect
the enforcement of the rights of trade secret holders. The paper firstly analyses legal
provisions under Sri Lankan Law on the preservation of confidentiality of information
during court proceedings. Secondly, a comparative analysis is employed to analyse the
existing law in Sri Lanka compared with the United States and the United Kingdom
jurisdictions. The doctrinal method is used to analyse the law at present and identify
lacunas in the law. Comparative method assisted in comparing best practices adopted by
selected jurisdictions. Findings revealed that countries with legal provisions to preserve
the confidentiality of trade secrets during court proceedings assist in better enforcement
of the rights of trade secret holders. The paper recommends introducing procedural laws
to facilitate the confidentially of trade secrets in Sri Lankan court proceedings. | en_US |
