NEW DELHI: The Law Commission in its newest report has really helpful enacting a separate legislation on prevention and redressal of financial espionage with extra give attention to felony liabilities. The panel, which submitted its report back to the federal government on Tuesday, stated since “critical technologies and sectors such as defence, nuclear, telecom etc may be targeted by acts of economic espionage”, it was important to have a strict strategy in the direction of such acts.

“A separate legislation on economic espionage is also desirable as economic stability and national security become more intertwined,” the legislation fee advised authorities.

Highlighting its significance within the present geopolitical state of affairs, the panel stated financial espionage had deeper implications for the economic system and nationwide safety because it was directed on the state.

The fee noticed that misappropriation of commerce secrets and techniques and financial espionage, although they could look like the identical, had been totally different. In financial espionage, the actor focusing on home corporations or authorities entities to steal their commerce secrets and techniques was a overseas authorities, and the profit was derived by it having safety implications for the state.

“The aspect of economic espionage, thus, should continue to be governed under the existing provisions of Indian Penal Code and common law. An alternate and more suitable approach, however, would be enacting a separate law on prevention of and redressal for economic espionage with more focus on criminal liabilities as fines and damages will hardly suffice in such cases as they lack the requisite deterrent impact,” the fee stated.

Moreover, the panel stated safety of commerce secrets and techniques, similar to within the case of conventional types of mental property, was territorial in nature; nonetheless, provisions coping with financial espionage might require some extra-territorial utility. “Thus, it would be prudent to have a separate law to address the issue of economic espionage while commercial espionage will fall within the purview of the proposed Trade Secrets Act,” it stated.

The reference to the Law Commission was made because the legislation ministry was analyzing enacting a laws on financial espionage and commerce secrets and techniques safety and had ready a draft cupboard observe when it determined to ask the legislation panel to guage authorities’s proposed legislation.

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Further, the fee was of the opinion that in defining commerce secrets and techniques, the legislation ought to keep away from bestowing any proprietary conceptions to the identical. A proposed draft of such laws titled the ‘Protection of Trade Secrets Bill, 2024’ has additionally been really helpful by the panel.