Theoretical Considerations Regarding the Know-How Contract from the Perspective of the European Union Legislation and the Romanian Transposition Legislation

The investment made in generating and applying intellectual capital is a determining factor in terms of competitiveness and performance related to innovation, regardless of whether we consider a cross-border or a national market. In most cases, marketers resort to different means to appropriate the results of their own innovation activities. One of these means is the use of intellectual property rights, such as patents, design rights or copyright. Another means of protecting innovation results is to protect access to information that has some value to an entity and is not widely known. In the context of Union law, mentioning in this regard Directive (EU) 2016/943 on the protection of know-how and undisclosed business information (trade secrets) know-how and valuable undisclosed business information which is intended to remain confidential are called trade secrets. In the context of an increasingly dynamic and technological Union and international market, trade secrets, characterized by the fact that they go beyond the framework of technological knowledge and include commercial data, such as customer and supplier information, business plans and studies and strategies market, are as important as patents and other forms of intellectual property rights. The issue of commercial secrecy is regulated in Romanian legislation under OG 25/2019 on the protection of know-how and undisclosed business information that constitutes secrets. Therefore, this research aims to address the issue of commercial secrecy as a variation of the know-how from the EU and Romanian legislative perspective of transposition.