Unfair Competition Prevention Act

 

• 
• 
• 
• 

What’s New

• Page on Data Utilization & Shared Data with Limited Access was uploaded (November, 2021).

• Minor changes in expression were made on Guidelines on Shared Data with Limited Access (English ver.)(PDF:1,734KB)and Management Guidelines for Trade Secrets (English ver.) (July, 2021).(PDF:276KB)* There is no change in the content.

• Handbook for Protection of Confidential Information ~Improving Corporate Value~ (English ver.)(PDF:1,966KB)was posted (February, 2021).

• Guidance for Data Utilization (English ver.)(PDF:255KB)was posted (February, 2021).

Outline of Unfair Competition Prevention Act

The Unfair Competition Prevention Act regulates infringement of trade secrets, unfair usage of a well-known sign, misleading representation regarding the place of origin, imitation of the configuration of a third party’s product, etc.

• The English version of the Act

Revision of Unfair Competition Prevention Act

In order to improve utilization of “data”, which can be an essential resource for company growth, METI revised the Unfair Competition Prevention Act in May 2018 toward efficient provision and utilization of data.

• Overview documents regarding the revision of the Act in 2018(PDF:1,352KB)

• Overview regarding the revision of the Act in May 2018
  • Defining the acts of unfair competition on “shared data with limited access” and providing civil remedies against the acts
  • Enhancing regulation against the acts circumventing Technological Restriction Measures

• Guidelines on Shared Data with Limited Access(PDF:1,359KB)

• Overview of Guidelines on Shared Data with Limited Access(PDF:1,070KB)

*To express precisely what this is, we changed the name from “protected data” to “shared data with limited access” (Oct. 2020).

About Trade Secret

The Unfair Competition Prevention Act provides civil and criminal remedies in such cases where secret information of the company is stolen or disclosed illegally. To protect information according to the Act, companies need to manage such data as “trade secrets”.

• Management Guidelines for Trade Secrets (PDF:272KB)
• Handbook for Protection of Confidential Information ~Improving Corporate Value~ (PDF:1.9MB)
  *English version was posted on February 2, 2021.
• Three requirements of trade secrets are as follows:

Contact Our Office

Please contact us if you have any questions regarding the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.

• E-MAIL: bzl-ip_policy_office (at) meti.go.jp   *Please replace (at) with @ when sending the mail.
• Intellectual Property Policy Office
• Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau