Protecting dual-use technological innovation through trade secret law: institutional limits and cybersecurity challenges

Abstract

This article examines the institutional limits of EU trade secret law in the context of contemporary cyberthreats targeting dual-use technological innovation. It also explores the extent to which the EU Trade Secrets Directive (‘Council directive 2016/943’) can effectively protect strategically sensitive technological information against systemic, automated, and difficult-to-attribute cyber operations, and identify where complementary governance tools are required. Using doctrinal, comparative, and functional analyses informed by existing empirical studies, the study examines legal developments in this area in Estonia, Germany, and France. It demonstrates that effective protection of strategically sensitive innovation increasingly depends less on ex post legal remedies and more on organisational resilience, cybersecurity governance, and preventive risk management. The article further evaluates the relationship between trade secrets and selective patent disclosure within broader innovation-security strategies, arguing that trade secrets must be embedded in a layered protection model rather than treated as a self-sufficient mechanism.