Browsing by Author "Rintasalo, Mia"

Businesses regard trade secrets as driving force behind their competitiveness. Legal protection of trade secrets is therefore important for trade secret holders. The scope of trade secret protection has varied amongst EU member states, which is the reason why the Trade Secret Directive (2016/943) was introduced in 2016. The directive defines trade secrets and the prerequisites for their lawful/unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure. According to the directive, reverse engineering of trade secrets is allowed in certain situations. This thesis researches the circumstances under which reverse engineering has been considered lawful in the Finnish legislation and case law before the directive. In addition, this thesis studies how the implementation of the directive has affected Finnish trade secret legislation and the perspective presented in Finnish case law and legal literature with regard to the acceptability of reverse engineering.