ABSTRACT
This chapter first pinpoints the many inherent problems of trade secrets, and reminds the IP community of treating trade secret protection with a grain of salt. It goes on to identify two indicators of over-protection of trade secrets, namely overly harsh criminal punishment for trade secret infringement and encroaching the principle of equality of arms among parties, before it addresses the many side-effects of over-protection of trade secrets. This chapter then identifies the three difficult choices confronting Asian economies: to propertize trade secret or not; to criminalize trade secret infringement or not; to penalize economic espionage or not? This chapter concludes by suggesting Asian jurisdictions consider the German model of maintaining a modest criminal punishment for trade secret infringement and protecting the interests of employees’ mobility by limiting the non-competition clauses.
