The Rights to a Production Secret (Know-How)

In this paper, we consider such an institution of civil law as the secret of production (know-how), analyze the procedure for the emergence and use of rights to the secret of production, identify the specifics of applying measures of responsibility for violation of rights to the secret of production. The paper examines in detail the formation and development of the institute of production secret in Russia, as well as the experience of its regulation in foreign countries. Particular attention is paid to the legal regulation of the institute of the production secret in the Russian Federation at the present time. It is noted that the main right in relation to the production secret is the exclusive right, which presupposes the two main powers of its right holder: the right to use the secret of production at its own discretion within the limits established by law, and the power to dispose of the exclusive right to the production secret. The contract of alienation of the exclusive right to the production secret and the license contract as the main contracts within the framework of the use of the right to the production secret are analyzed. The right to the secret of production, created in the framework of the employee's labor relations or the fulfillment of the contract agreement, is also considered. The problems of bringing to responsibility for violation of the right to the secret of production are studied, and it is pointed out that the institution of the production secret is one of the most weakly regulated institutions in the sphere of intellectual activity. In this regard, bringing to responsibility in the sphere of violations of rights to the secret of production in practice causes certain difficulties. Since the secret of production in comparison with other objects of intellectual rights has a weaker defense, issues of further improving the legal nature of the production secret as an object of intellectual rights are considered.