| Abstract [eng] |
Master's thesis aims to reveal the relationship between intellectual property rights and competition law, when the right to information constituting business secret is executed. Therefore, this work analyzes the features of business secret conception and regulation of its protection, relations with intellectual property, influence on competition by executing rights to intellectual property as far as they are related to business secret transfer to third parties, also, interaction of exercising the objects of intellectual property and application of competitive restrains in the context of business secrets regulation. The first part analyzes the conception of business secret determined in the legislation of the Republic of Lithuania, the European Union, the United States and international law, as well as in the legal doctrine. Moreover, the model list of objects of trade secret is given and the features of terms, which are used to define business secrets, are analyzed. The second part reveals the features of commercial (industrial) secret regulation, clarifies the law regulating commercial secrets, relations between commercial secrets and intellectual property rights, also the interaction between intellectual property and competition law in the regulation of business secrets. Trade secrets as intellectual property is also subject to the civil turnover and the choice of the owner of intangible assets how to exercise the right to information constituting business secret may have an influence on competition. Therefore, the third part deals with the licencing agreement as a business secret transfer method and analyzes the concept, types of licencing, features of the object, which can be licenced, the content of licencing arrangements, the reasons and purposes to licence secret information, evaluation of the influence on competition in the European Union and United States law. The last part is devoted to the analysis of the Microsoft case, as far as it concerned with a refusal to provide certain information when a company is abusing its dominant position. |
