Sunday, November 13, 2011

NAFTA sec. 1711 trade secrets in North America

The North American Fair Trade Agreement is a treaty signed between Mexico, Canada, and America.  In section 1711 of NAFTA the countries reached an agreement about trade secrets.  The agreement goes like this:

  • All member countries must provide legal means to prevent trade secrets from being disclosed, acquired, or used by someone other than the trade secret owner in a manner contrary to honest commercial practice, without the consent of the owner.
  • All member countries agree that a trade secret is: 
    • information that is secret;
    • has actual or potential economic value;
    • and the owner of the information has taken reasonable measures to assure the information's secrecy.
  • All member countries can't limit the time a trade secret is protected for.
  • All member countries can't make it unnecessarily difficult to license trade secrets, either by fees or procedures.
  • All member countries agree that if their drug approval system requires disclosure of potential trade secrets that those trade secrets will be protected from disclosure by the member country. 

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