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BUMPS ALONG THE SILK ROAD: PROTECTING TRADE SECRETS FROM EUROPE TO INDIA TO CHINA

Metropolitan Corporate Counsel Volume 16, Number 12 - December 2008 James P. Flynn Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. [T]rade on the Silk Road ...included...oasis merchants who served as intermediaries in this down-the-line trade, as it is called, [and who] were careful to discourage longer-distance trade by exaggerating the distances and dangers involved, and they suppressed detailed accounts of distant lands, treating such information as trade secrets. One odd result of this is that [those who]... were in regular trade contact ...were still almost entirely ignorant of each other. - John Major, Historical Background of the Silk Roads (2002) The 7000-mile Silk Road was one of the world's first great international trade routes. It moved westward across China, through Northern India and the Middle East, to Europe. Though many in today's economy do not regularly travel through the inhospitable Taklimakan desert and other difficult areas, China, India and Europe remain economically linked, and merchants must still protect their trade secrets in such regions. But now that requires more than guarding caravans. Now one's best protection comes from understanding the protections available under European, Indian, and Chinese law.

Full post as published by The Trade Secrets Vault on January 04, 2009 (boomark / email).