CREATIVITY, CONTROL AND TRADE SECRETS POLICY: AN EXAMINATION OF SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CANADA AND ISRAEL

Abstract

What does it take to succeed as an innovator? The aim of this article is to examine one aspect of this issue, by identifying attitudes to knowledge spillover as indicated by judicial policy regarding the law of trade secrets in the workplace, and to address their consequences for the high-technology industry. A comparative analysis of the laws of trade secrets and confidential information in the employment context in Canada and Israel is carried out, and in the process, a coherent narrative of these laws in both countries is furnished, with the aim of eliminating some of the uncertainty which is characteristic of this field. Combined with data connecting information spillover to hightechnology growth, this article finds that the laws of trade secrets and confidential commercial information represent one type of potential instrument in social and economic policy, which can be used to facilitate growth in the high-technology industry.