The law firm Cheongchul's Attorney Eom Sang-yun conducted an interview with 'Law Issue' regarding the 'duration of protection for trade secrets.'

Unlike patents or copyrights, the duration of protection for trade secrets under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act is not clearly defined. While patents and copyrights have specific durations of validity, the legal protection period for trade secrets can vary by case. Therefore, it should be noted that trade secrets are not necessarily protected indefinitely.

Attorney Eom Sang-yun from the law firm Cheongchul stated, “What should be noted is that trade secrets are not uniformly protected for a specific period; rather, they can be judged differently depending on the case,” and explained, “As seen in precedents, the duration of protection for trade secrets is reasonably determined by comprehensively considering the content of the technology, efforts and methods to maintain the trade secret, and the comparison with the protection periods of patents, etc., so it can be determined differently for each individual case.”

For more details, you can check the published full interview.

Duration of Protection for Trade Secrets under the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act