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The Problems With Trade Secret Protection/Overprotection In Asia, Kung-Chung Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Trade secret protection law has been an important complement to patent law and has gained increasing importance over the last three decades, not least in Asia. Major Asian countries are now at a crossroads, as some (Japan, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, and China) are following the US approach to criminalizing trade secret infringement and imposing harsher penalties on economic espionage (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China). This paper identifies many of the problems associated with trade secret protection, provides indicators of the overprotection of trade secrets, and warns against its many side effects. It then points out the crossroads that Asian economies …