O segredo comercial e a sua relevância jurídica no domínio comercial contemporâneo

Abstract

We live, more and more, in a technological and digital world, which instigates production, innovation and industrial evolution, which in turn creates new challenges, and simultaneously, in a strongly outsourced information society. In this context, trade or business secrets play an increasingly relevant role.For this reason, there is a serious concern in the interested circles to safeguard the secret information of businesses with commercial value, which translates into the increasing adoption of measures aimed at this effect.That is not enough, it is also necessary to have legal protection.Historically, this has been linked to the problem of unfair competition and, despite the recent autonomy of this protection, it still largely happens. Indeed, in times of strong competition and competitiveness in the commercial, industrial and services sectors, confidential information qualifying as a business secret gives those who have their domain and the respective productive organization a competitive advantage, in the respective sector or market, which can be of great magnitude. Hence the natural temptation of competitors to access it, not only by lawful, but also by illicit or unfair means.

Date of Award	14 Dec 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Paulo Olavo Cunha (Supervisor)