การคุ้มครองความลับทางการค้าในการดำเนินคดีอาญา

Abstract

                  This paper reveals information about the laws relating to the prosecution of crimes involving trade secrets. It examines in particular the issues regarding the knowledge, concepts, and theories related to the prosecution of crimes involving trade secrets. Findings in the study indicate that the concept of the protection of trade secrets has existed in the past. People create confidential information for use in the production process for various products, most of which are kept as personal secrets. These have often been lost with the person who created them upon the death of that person. Laws to protect trade secrets have been enacted, and  trade secrets are now protected by the Agreement on Trade-Related to Intellectual Property Rights, also called the TRIPS Agreement.

                  Thailand, as a member country, has enacted the Trade Secrets Act B.E. 2545 to protect trade secrets. This law is still in effect. In addition, in the prosecution of trade secret cases, the legal process of Thailand is conducted under The Act on the Establishment of and Procedure for Intellectual Property and International Trade Court B.E. 2539 (1996), and The Provision of Intellectual Property and International Trade case B.E. 2540 (1997), which require the proceedings to be in accordance with the Civil Procedure Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. The results of this study show that criminal proceedings involving trade secrets encounter problems because the Trade Secrets law contains no specific procedures for keeping trade secrets at each stage of the proceedings. The author therefore believes that the law should be amended to ensure that criminal proceedings involving trade secrets are carried out in such a way as to protect the trade secrets at every stage of the proceedings. The suggested amendments would be in accordance with the judicial intention of maintaining trade secret information. In this regard, the essence of the amendment of such law will then be provided in this paper.