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First, Harry --- "Trade Secrets and Antitrust Law" [2011] ELECD 555; in Dreyfuss, C. Rochelle; Strandburg, J. Katherine (eds), "The Law and Theory of Trade Secrecy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: The Law and Theory of Trade Secrecy

Editor(s): Dreyfuss, C. Rochelle; Strandburg, J. Katherine

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847208996

Section: Chapter 14

Section Title: Trade Secrets and Antitrust Law

Author(s): First, Harry

Number of pages: 49

Extract:

14 Trade secrets and antitrust law
Harry First*


I. INTRODUCTION
The antitrust treatment of trade secrets has remained largely hidden.
There has been little separate focus on the competition problems that
trade secrets may present, even though trade secret protection was raised
as a defense in early antitrust litigation. The U.S. federal antitrust agen-
cies' Intellectual Property Licensing Guidelines treat trade secrecy the
same way they treat other forms of intellectual property.1 Antitrust com-
mentary focused on trade secrets is scarce.2 In a sense, the antitrust metes


* Charles L. Denison Professor of Law, New York University School of
Law. I thank Tomas Nilsson and Anthony Badaracco for their excellent research
assistance. A research grant from the Filomen D'Agostino and Max E. Greenberg
Research Fund at New York University School of Law provided financial assist-
ance for this chapter.
1
See U.S. Dep't of Justice and Fed. Trade Comm'n, Antitrust Guidelines
for the Licensing of Intellectual Property § 2.1 (1995), available at www.
usdoj.gov/atr/public/guidelines/0558.pdf (`IP Guidelines'). A more recent report
issued by the federal enforcement agencies similarly treats trade secrets the same
as other forms of intellectual property. See U.S. Dep't of Justice and Fed.
Trade Comm'n, Antitrust Enforcement and Intellectual Property Rights:
Promoting Innovation and Competition (2007), available at www.usdoj.gov/
atr/public/hearings/ip/222655.pdf (`Promoting Innovation'). The IP Guidelines are
discussed infra notes 25­6 and accompanying text.
2
See, ...