Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. O-5)

Marginal note:Use of trade secret for the benefit of foreign economic entity

• 19 (1) Every person commits an offence who, at the direction of, for the benefit of or in association with a foreign economic entity, fraudulently and without colour of right and to the detriment of Canada’s economic interests, international relations or national defence or national security

  • (a) communicates a trade secret to another person, group or organization; or

  • (b) obtains, retains, alters or destroys a trade secret.

• Marginal note:Punishment

  (2) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 10 years.

• Marginal note:Defence

  (3) A person is not guilty of an offence under subsection (1) if the trade secret was

  • (a) obtained by independent development or by reason only of reverse engineering; or

  • (b) acquired in the course of the person’s work and is of such a character that its acquisition amounts to no more than an enhancement of that person’s personal knowledge, skill or expertise.

• Marginal note:Meaning of trade secret

  (4) For the purpose of this section, trade secret means any information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, method, technique, process, negotiation position or strategy or any information contained or embodied in a product, device or mechanism that

  • (a) is or may be used in a trade or business;

  • (b) is not generally known in that trade or business;

  • (c) has economic value from not being generally known; and

  • (d) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.