Förstärkt skydd för företagshemligheter, SOU 2008:63 - Regeringen

Summary SOU 2008:63ployees complaining about serious maladministration at their placesof work.Definition of the term 'business secret'The definition of 'business secret' contained in the Act is broad andflexible. It is technology neutral in relation to the means of documentationas regards business secrets that have been documented.It has been said that research companies find it particularlydifficult to protect their business secrets because their ideas andconcepts are to a significant extent based on the knowledge of theiremployees. However, such information as mentioned here is alsocovered by the definition, provided that the other conditions aresatisfied as well. What probably causes particular problems for knowledge-orientedundertakings instead are the difficulties in certaincases of drawing a line between what business secrets comprise andwhat should instead be classed as an employee's personal skill,experience and knowledge. We consider that an amendment thatfacilitates such demarcation would entail a restriction on theopportunities for individuals to freely utilise their experience andknowledge and thereby counteract the socioeconomic interest offacilitating the free flow of knowledge. We do not consider such anamendment to be desirable.We also consider that there is no other reasonable or possiblesolution than to allow a business operator to decide which informationis to be secret and to actually keep it secret. Other preconditionsfor the FHL being applicable are sufficient to ensurethat the Act only protects such information as is, from an objectiveperspective, worthy of protection.In summary, we do not consider that there is any cause topropose any amendments to the definition. However, we considerthat there is a need to supplement the definition with a new thirdparagraph. We shall report on this proposal in the next section.28