Canada Needs More Protection for Trade Secrets

From Law Times of Ontario, an article concerning the need for specific Canadian legislation dealing with trade secrets and industrial espionage. Unlike the U.S. where most states have adopted versions of the Uniform Trade Secrets Protection Act and Congress has criminalized theft of trade secrets in the Economic Espionage Act, Canada is still relying on common law concepts which don't provide clear protections for trade secrets.

For example, Canada's highest court has ruled that confidential information is not capable of being "stolen" since it is not converted in a way that deprives its owner of use.

The article quotes Richard Austin, chief legal counsel for EDS Canada, who says that there "isn’t very much in a criminal law context you can do with the theft of information" in Canada.

Like most countries, Canada needs to catch up with the changing nature of property crimes in the 21st Century.