Property Rights versus Public Welfare in the Protection of Trade Secrets in Developing Countries

Most of the studies on international technology transfer deal mainly with the traditional issues of patents and trademarks. There is very little analysis of the important policy issues pertaining to trade secrets—an area that is becoming increasingly important as more and more companies maintain their technologies in the form of trade secrets rather than patents. This article analyzes the present regulatory regime on trade secrets in developing countries and concludes that the present system fails to balance the property rights of the innovator with that of the interest of the public. It addresses some major policy issues and makes certain recommendations to resolve the problem.