IP Wales is a not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to helping Boards of Directors better understand their businesses, and protecting them from the increasing threat of Intellectual Property (IP) cybercrime.
Intellectual Property, or IP, covers the intangible property that is the result of creativity, and includes patents, copyrights and other digital assets, which can be key to a company’s identity and success.
In the interest of helping companies, and their directors, protect these assets from the growing threat of cybercrime, IP Wales’ Associate Professor Andrew Beale OBE has co-authored a new paper with Barrister Jane Foulser McFarlane, entitled "The importance of keeping your company's trade secrets, secret".
The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018 demands that all UK businesses must now take "reasonable steps" to keep their trade secrets, secret. The origins of these UK Regulations can ultimately be found within US jurisprudence, out of which this new paper identifies three basic steps that UK Board of Directors now need to undertake in order to help keep company trade secrets, secret:
- Identify, label and preserve your company's trade secrets;
- Educate and train your staff about trade secrets;
- Risk manage your company's cybersecurity.
With the focus of businesses on surviving the economic fallout from COVID-19, law enforcement agencies across the world are cautioning that the cyber threats facing businesses during the current pandemic remain significant, varied, and growing.
Associate Professor Andrew Beale OBE has also published a blog piece on this topic on the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL) Blog.
Further information on this topic, along with several guides and articles aimed at protecting IP, visit the IP Wales website.