The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the protection of commercial confidential information and trade secrets in New Zealand law

Abstract

After many years in which trade secrets law received relatively little attention internationally, we are now seeing a flurry of activity aimed at harmonising trade secret protection, combined with efforts to increase the level of protection provided by law. Internationally, there have been a number of initiatives to increase trade secret protection, driven by concerns about economic espionage, especially foreign economic espionage. ¹This article is about one such initiative, the trade secret provisions in the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) to which New Zealand is a party, and the impact these provisions will have on New Zealand law.