Trade Secrets, Confidential Information and Departing Employees

In recent years, due to technological progress, the number of cases concerning misuse and theft of valuable information by departing employees has increased. Therefore, this book explains and compares the New Zealand and German law (and their development) concerning protection of trade secrets and confidential information from disclosure by leaving employees. Necessarily, the New Zealand part, as a field of law governed by case law, also includes comparison with other common law systems. The work distinguishes trade secret protection from intellectual property law. Furthermore, restraint of trade law and its counterpart in Germany, so-called ‘Wettbewerbsverbote’, are observed as an indirect protection feature for trade secrets. More recent phenomena, such as ‘garden leave’ clauses, are also taken into account. Finally, the law enforcement and therefore remedies are focused and evaluated. The results of this comparative analysis can be useful to practitioners and scholars in New Zealand and Germany, as well as to their colleagues from similar law systems in our globalising economy.