Obchodní tajemství

Under Czech law

The trade secret is defined in § 504 of the Civil Code (Act No. 89/2012 Sb.): facts connected to an enterprise that are competitively significant, ascertainable, not commonly available in the relevant circles, and — decisively — whose owner ensures their confidentiality in his own interest. Protection is not registered and lasts as long as the conditions hold. Infringement is an unfair-competition delict (§ 2985 porušení obchodního tajemství, within § 2976+), giving claims for restraint, removal of the condition, damages, and unjust enrichment; the 2018 amendment implementing the EU Trade Secrets Directive strengthened procedural protection of secrets in court.

The Achilles heel is the "ensures confidentiality" condition: no NDAs, no access controls, no labelling — no trade secret, however valuable the information.

A practical example

A sales director leaves for a competitor with the customer database and margin calculations. The company sues — and wins, because it can show the data lived in an access-restricted CRM, employment contracts contained confidentiality clauses surviving termination, and the files were marked confidential. Its competitor across town loses the identical case: the same data sat on a shared drive open to every intern.

When you need a lawyer

Designing the protection before departure day: confidentiality clauses, NDAs with partners, and documented access regimes. In the acute phase — an employee leaving with data — speed matters: preliminary injunctions under § 74+ of the Civil Procedure Code are won in days, not months.