As we reported last month in this blog, in December the European Council and representatives of the European Parliament reached a "provisional agreement" on the European Commission's proposed Directive to protect trade secrets.  With this provisional agreement, the Council and representatives of the European Parliament agreed on compromise language to be submitted to the Parliament for approval, thus clearing the way for adoption of the proposed directive in the next few months.

At the time that we reported on this development, the compromise text was not yet available.  However, now that the Parliament and Council have completed a legal-linguistic review of the text, the full English-language version of the compromise text is now available.  With the benefit of the full text, we can now answer one final open question that we reported last month — i.e., what is the scope of the protections that will be available to trade secrets during litigation under the compromise text?

As we previously noted, the European Commission's original text contemplated that courts in Member States may issue "Attorneys' Eyes Only" protective orders like those that are typically used in trade secrets cases in the U.S.  Specifically, the Commission's original text provided that:

Member States shall also ensure that the competent judicial authorities may, on a duly reasoned application by a party, take specific measures necessary to preserve the confidentiality of any trade secret or alleged trade secret used or referred to in the course of the legal proceedings relating to the unlawful acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret. The measures referred to . . .  shall at least include the possibility: (a) to restrict access to any document containing trade secrets submitted by the parties or third parties, in whole or in part; (b) to restrict access to hearings, when trade secrets may be disclosed, and their corresponding records or transcript.   In exceptional circumstances, and subject to appropriate justification, the competent judicial authorities may restrict the parties' access to those hearings and order them to be carried out only in the presence of the legal representatives of the parties and authorised experts . . .

In contrast, in its draft Legislative Resolution, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee watered down this language with the following proposed language that would appear to eliminate true "Attorneys' Eyes Only" protective orders:

The measures referred to . . .  shall at least include the possibility: (a) to restrict access to any document containing trade secrets or alleged trade secrets submitted by the parties or third parties to a limited number of persons, in whole or in part provided that at least one person from each of the parties, and, where appropriate in view of the proceedings, their respective lawyers and/or legal representatives, are given access to the document in full; (b)  to restrict access to hearings, when trade secrets or alleged trade secrets may be disclosed, and their corresponding records or transcript to a limited number of persons, provided that it includes at least one person from each of the parties, and, where appropriate in view of the proceedings, their lawyers and/or legal representatives . . .

Based on the compromise text, the Council and representatives of the Parliament appear to have adopted the Legal Affair's Committee's approach, albeit with different language.  The relevant portion of the compromise text now reads as follows:

Member States shall also ensure that the competent judicial authorities may, on a duly reasoned application by a party, take specific measures necessary to preserve the confidentiality of any trade secret or alleged trade secret used or referred to in the course of the legal proceedings relating to the unlawful acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret. Member States may also allow competent judicial authorities to take such measures on their own initiative.

The measures referred to in the first subparagraph shall at least include the possibility:

(a) to restrict access to any document containing trade secrets or alleged trade secrets submitted by the parties or third parties, in whole or in part, to a limited number of persons;

(b) to restrict access to hearings, when trade secrets or alleged trade secrets may be disclosed, and their corresponding records or transcript to a limited number of persons;

(c) to make available to any person other than those comprised in the limited number of persons referred to in points (a) and (b) a non-confidential version of any judicial decision, in which the passages containing trade secrets have been removed or redacted.

The number of persons referred to in points (a) and (b) of the second subparagraph shall be no greater than what is necessary in order to ensure compliance with the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial of the parties to the proceedings and shall include, at least, one natural person from each party and the respective lawyers or other representatives of those parties to the proceedings.

Proposed Directive, Article 8, ¶ 2.

Assuming that this compromise text is approved by the European Parliament, legislatures and courts in Member States will no doubt take different approaches to effectuate this language.  Although the final compromise text is somewhat weaker than the protections that U.S. practitioners typically see in trade secrets litigation, on balance the compromise language provides a reasonable baseline for protection of trade secrets during litigation that is probably more than sufficient for most disputes.

The compromise text is expected to be submitted to the full European Parliament for approval in the next few months.  If the Parliament approves the text on a first reading, the European Council will approve the European Parliament's position and the Directive will be adopted.  Member States then will be required to enact national law consistent with the Directive within two years.  We will continue to track progress of the proposed Directive as it crosses the final hurdle necessary for adoption.

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