Intellectual property and labour relations

Some of the more common questions that companies ask our Intellectual Property consultants at EIS are about the regulation of copyright and trade secrets in employment relationships.

Many employees of companies or institutions create copyright-protected works in the course of their work. Such works may include, for example, a pattern created by a designer, an advertising text published on a website or social media, a product photographed by an employee, a PPT presentation, or a computer program created by a programmer, etc. However, it should be noted that the employer may not automatically have the right to use or modify these works in their business activities if the relevant conditions are not met in the employment contract and work arrangements. This can lead to disputes, misunderstandings, and lost revenue or damages to the company’s future operations.

The situation is similar with trade secrets. Although the Employment Contracts Act stipulates that employees are obliged to keep the company’s trade secrets confidential, this alone is not enough. The company has a much greater obligation to contribute to ensuring that, in the event of a breach of trade secrets or unfair competition, it is possible to hold employees accountable and enforce its rights as a company.

With this webinar, we aim to provide answers to the most common questions and challenges that pop up when companies try to navigate good working relations, trade secrets, legal requirements and authorship rights with their employees.