{"id":40027,"date":"2021-10-24T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-24T11:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/new-law-on-trade-secret-protection-improved-confidentiality-protection-standards\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T16:17:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:17:25","slug":"trade-secret-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/trade-secret-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"Law on Trade Secret Protection in Serbia: What Businesses Must Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"40027\" class=\"elementor elementor-40027 elementor-33558\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-44c19a01 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"44c19a01\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-633e539a elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"633e539a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"av_textblock_section av-jnfrqfkn-63a3e3c05578c3602c3481b0bbdf42af\"><div class=\"avia_textblock linkz\"><p>The new Law on Trade Secret Protection entered into force at the beginning of June 2021, and compared to the previous Law, regulates some of the key matters in this field, thereby raising the legal protection of trade secrets to a higher level.<\/p><p>In addition to more precisely refining the terminology of certain terms, this is the first time that <a href=\"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/non-disclosure-agreements\/\">non-disclosure agreements<\/a> are mentioned in a legal document, as a protection mechanism. Additionally, the Law introduces stricter sanctions, which will indisputably lead to far greater caution when handling confidential information.<\/p><\/div><\/section><section class=\"av_textblock_section av-jnfrqfkn-22e29912b7f06bc73898def3aac67ddc\"><div class=\"avia_textblock linkz\"><p>With the adoption of the new Law on Trade Secret Protection (hereinafter: <strong>the Law<\/strong>) the Serbian legislation has made a massive step towards an all-encompassing legal regulation of trade secret protection and confidentiality, as well as towards harmonization with the European legal standards in this field.<\/p><p>It seems that in recent years, the awareness of the need to raise the protection of confidentiality (especially in business relations) has risen to a higher level in Serbia, which resulted in the adoption of adequate regulations in this area.<\/p><\/div><\/section><div class=\"av-special-heading av-2waqxms-801342a76446ac4c3dadfaefd096c17d av-special-heading-h2 blockquote modern-quote modern-centered avia-builder-el-11 el_after_av_textblock el_before_av_heading av-inherit-size\"><h2>\u00a0<\/h2><h2 class=\"av-special-heading-tag\">4 Pivotal Changes the Law on Trade Secret Protection Brings<\/h2><\/div><div class=\"av-special-heading av-2i6f1c4-96f3f72f575a9b27201c5b9f728ed1e5 av-special-heading-h3 blockquote modern-quote modern-centered avia-builder-el-12 el_after_av_heading el_before_av_textblock av-inherit-size\"><h3>\u00a0<\/h3><h3 class=\"av-special-heading-tag\">1. New Legal Definitions<\/h3><\/div><section class=\"av_textblock_section av-jnfrqfkn-22e29912b7f06bc73898def3aac67ddc\"><div class=\"avia_textblock linkz\"><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Firstly, the new Law contains a somewhat modified <strong>definition of a trade secret<\/strong>:<\/p><ul><li>a trade secret represents information that has commercial value as it represents a secret;<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>the property of \u201csecrecy\u201d of information derives from the fact that it is not generally known or easily accessible to individuals who, within their activities, usually come into contact with such information;<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>It is also necessary that the person who is lawfully controlling the information in the given circumstances has taken reasonable steps to maintain its confidentiality. However, the Law does not remain vague here, but exemplifies (although not exclusively) which protection measures will be considered \u201creasonable\u201d.<\/li><\/ul><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>In that case, if your company is the holder of trade secret, it will be considered that you have taken all reasonable measures to protect the secret if (for example):<\/p><ul><li>you <a href=\"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/practice-areas\/labor-employment\/\">draft an internal act<\/a> on handling the trade secret and the circle of persons who handle the trade secret,<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>you conclude non-disclosure agreements with individuals who could potentially come into possession of your trade secret, including <a href=\"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/nda-with-employees\/\">employees<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/independent-contractor-nda\/\">business partners<\/a>, external associates, and consultants, or<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>you draft and deliver confidentiality statements to be signed by the individuals from the previous item.<\/li><\/ul><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>The legal term of the trade secret now includes an example of specific information that is covered by it: it foresees that, among other things, know-how, business, and technological information are considered a trade secret.<\/p><p>Besides the term of trade secret itself, the Law broadens the circle of key terms and precisely defines who is considered to be:<\/p><ul><li>a holder of the trade secret,<\/li><li>an individual who committed a violation of the trade secret,<\/li><li>an individual who is suspected to have violated the trade secret,<\/li><\/ul><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>as well as what shall be considered goods by which the violation of the trade secret was carried out.<\/p><p>Since the relevant terms were not precisely defined before the adoption of the new Law, amendments in this regard should, as expected, contribute to a clearer and more reliable interpretation of other provisions of the Law.<\/p><\/div><\/section><div class=\"av-special-heading av-22r1w90-0bdc54056715754b60272384e155b7f6 av-special-heading-h3 blockquote modern-quote modern-centered avia-builder-el-14 el_after_av_textblock el_before_av_hr av-inherit-size\"><h3>\u00a0<\/h3><h3 class=\"av-special-heading-tag\">2. (Un)Lawful Actions<\/h3><\/div><section class=\"av_textblock_section av-jnfrqfkn-22e29912b7f06bc73898def3aac67ddc\"><div class=\"avia_textblock linkz\"><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>The new Law on Trade Secret Protection explicitly states the cases when obtaining, usage, and disclosure of the trade secret will be considered lawful, i.e., unlawful. The new provisions of this segment of the Law have been improved in relation to the previous legal solution, which defined the permitted and impermissible cases of obtaining or disposing of trade secrets in a less specific manner.<\/p><div class=\"avia-testimonial-content \"><div class=\"avia-testimonial-markup-entry-content\"><blockquote><p>The law states a particularly noteworthy novelty in one of the examples of permitted disposal of trade secrets, i.e., the situation of performing reverse engineering, given that other conditions provided by the Law are met. In <a href=\"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/internet-lawyer-it-attorney-serbia\/it-contracts-software-licensing\/\">IT agreements<\/a>, like software licensing agreements, such conduct is most often provided for within prohibited activities, and is related to the subject of the license, which does not transfer the entire right, but only certain authorizations within intellectual property rights. In any case, the introduction of such a term in the Law, which is very often used in the IT industry globally while no regulation of the Republic of Serbia has recognized it so far, shows the first step of domestic legislation in modernizing the legal system and approaching developed global systems with more comprehensive legal regulations in the field of information technology and intellectual property.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section><div class=\"av-special-heading av-1soy24k-9ac99e6bd225c5534100aa495dda3f9c av-special-heading-h3 blockquote modern-quote modern-centered avia-builder-el-18 el_after_av_textblock el_before_av_textblock av-inherit-size\"><h3>\u00a0<\/h3><h3 class=\"av-special-heading-tag\">3. Judicial Trade Secret Protection<\/h3><\/div><section class=\"av_textblock_section av-jnfrqfkn-22e29912b7f06bc73898def3aac67ddc\"><div class=\"avia_textblock linkz\"><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>From the practical aspect, one of the most significant changes brought by the new Law is the way of regulating the protection of trade secrets, starting from prescribing the requests that the holder of the trade secret can direct against the person who violated trade secrets, by the deadlines for filing a lawsuit.<\/p><ul><li>In case of a violation of the trade secret, the holder of the trade secret has several requests which they may direct to the competent courts at their disposal. One must keep in mind that all lawsuits may be filed not only against the individual who has made the violation but also against the intermediary who offers services to the individual who made the violation, by which they indirectly allow, i.e., make the violation easier.<\/li><li>On the other hand, aside from the holder of the trade secret, the lawsuit can be filed by the licensee for the use of the trade secret if they have appropriate grounds.<\/li><\/ul><blockquote><p>So, if you decide to transfer the rights of use of your trade secret with a license to your business partner or associate, they will also be able to initiate the process of protecting your trade secret before the court, even though they are not its source \u201ccreator\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>The holder of the trade secret (and licensee) can request compensation of damages from each individual who knew or had to know that they are taking part in unlawful actions in relation to the trade secret. In comparison to the previous Law, the new Law does not foresee the possibility to request triple the amount of the usual compensation instead of the compensation of property damage that the holder would receive for (lawful) use of a trade secret, but instead, it broadens the term of damage to include intangible, alongside tangible damage.<\/p><blockquote><p>In practice, this means that in case your trade secret gets into the hands of third parties, you are entitled to request compensation, not only for property damage in the form of actual damage and lost profit, but also as intangible damage made to your reputation, name, or brand.<\/p><\/blockquote><p><strong>The deadline for filing a lawsuit<\/strong> for violating a trade secret has been extended by the new Law from the previous six months to one year from the day of learning about the violation, i.e., five years (instead of the previous three years) from the day when the violation was committed.<\/p><\/div><\/section><div class=\"av-special-heading av-19btlwk-785982dfc69a7b69dc11e87029af53bc av-special-heading-h3 blockquote modern-quote modern-centered avia-builder-el-20 el_after_av_textblock el_before_av_image av-inherit-size\"><h3>\u00a0<\/h3><h3 class=\"av-special-heading-tag\">4. Penalties for the Violation of Trade Secret<\/h3><\/div><section class=\"av_textblock_section av-jnfrqfkn-22e29912b7f06bc73898def3aac67ddc\"><div class=\"avia_textblock linkz\"><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Besides the aforementioned, the new Law introduces stricter punitive measures in comparison to the older legislation: above all, <strong>natural persons<\/strong>, as well as <strong>entrepreneurs<\/strong>, may be held responsible for the violation of trade secret, <strong>not only legal entities<\/strong>.<\/p><p>As for the sanctions, the amounts of penalties for a legal entity and a responsible individual have remained the same, while for new responsible subjects, different amounts were prescribed:<\/p><ul><li><strong>a natural person <\/strong>who commits a misdemeanor by violating a trade secret may be fined in the amount of RSD 20,000 to 150,000 (approximately EUR 150 to 1300);<\/li><\/ul><ul><li><strong>An entrepreneur<\/strong> may be fined for the same <strong>violation, <\/strong>ranging from RSD 50,000 to 500,000 (approximately EUR 430 to 4300);<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>if the violation is committed by a <strong>legal entity<\/strong>, it risks being fined for an <strong>economic<\/strong> <strong>offence<\/strong> in the range of RSD 100,000 to 3,000,000, as provided by the previous law;<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>while for the same <strong>economic offence for a responsible person<\/strong> in a legal entity will be issued a fine ranging from RSD 50,000 to 200,000 (approximately EUR 430 to 1700).<\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/section><div class=\"av-special-heading av-ncg8mc-5768286daa107eb3490733514f1aaa5b av-special-heading-h2 blockquote modern-quote modern-centered avia-builder-el-23 el_after_av_textblock el_before_av_textblock av-inherit-size\"><h2 class=\"av-special-heading-tag\">\u00a0<\/h2><h2 class=\"av-special-heading-tag\">What Are the Anticipated Effects of the <span class=\"special_amp\">\u201c<\/span>Enhanced<span class=\"special_amp\">\u201d<\/span> Trade Secret Protection?<\/h2><\/div><section class=\"av_textblock_section av-jnfrqfkn-22e29912b7f06bc73898def3aac67ddc\"><div class=\"avia_textblock linkz\"><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Judging by the terminology and overall style of the document, the new Law could represent a huge step forward for the domestic legal system when it comes to intellectual property rights.<\/p><blockquote><p>Although such a view is not unanimous, trade secret and confidential information are often considered to be \u201cquasi\u201d intellectual property based on the fact that they do not possess the formal characteristics inherent in other intellectual property rights such as copyright, trademark or patent, but still carry invaluable importance and they represent an increasingly valuable resource of modern society and thus deserve adequate protection.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>Since the new regulation additionally makes the protection of trade secrets \u201cofficial\u201d, and thus approaches the legal protection of other intellectual property rights, it is justifiable to hope for faster development of court practice, as well as the expertise and experience of judges in this field in the coming years.<\/p><p>Not only that, the establishment of more stable standards for the protection of trade secrets can be expected to encourage a more dynamic exchange of business ideas in the market, now that business entities have reliable legal grounds for the protection of their confidential information. If the application of the Law proves to be successful in practice, it would be a kind of incentive for companies to establish partnerships and cooperation in the Republic of Serbia, which would consequently lead to the improvement of the business climate in the Serbian economic ecosystem.<\/p><\/div><\/section>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new Law on Trade Secret Protection entered into force at the beginning of June 2021, and compared to the previous Law, regulates some of the key matters in this field, thereby raising the legal protection of trade secrets to a higher level. In addition to more precisely refining the terminology of certain terms, this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":69188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"class_list":["post-40027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy-data-protection-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40027"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69199,"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40027\/revisions\/69199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zuniclaw.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}