The Impact of the Future Trade Secrets Directive on the Food Sector

[...]amidst our somewhat pessimistic "Conclusions" we should highlight that the tenth recital of the Commission's proposed text unmistakably proposes78 that, in the spirit of innovation and competition, the future Directive's provisions should not create any exclusive rights over the know-how or information protected under trade secrecy law: "thus, independent discovery of the same know-how and information remains possible and competitors of the trade secret holder are also free to reverse engineer any lawfully acquired product".