LAW ON  
 PROTECTION OF TRADE SECRET  
 
(‘’Official Gazette of Montenegro’’, No. 145/21)  
 
Subject  
Article 1  
 
This law regulates the civil legal protection of trade secret from illegal acquisition, use 
or disclosure.   
 
Trade secret  
Article 2  
 
Trade secret is information:  
- which is not fully or in a precisely defined configuration or sum of its components generally 
known or easily accessible to persons who use this information in the framework of their 
activities;   
- which has commercial value because it is secret , and    
- for which a natural or legal person who legally controls a trade secret (hereinafter: the holder 
of a trade secret) has taken appropriate measures, in order to keep it secret .  
 
Application  
Article 3  
 
 The provisions of the law governing civil proceedings , provisions of the Law regulating 
obligation relations and the procedure of execution and security shall apply accordingly to 
issues that are not regulated by this Law and relate to the procedure and costs of conducting 
the procedure.   
 
Lawful acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret  
                                                   Article 4   
 
 Acquisition of a trade secret shall be considered lawful when the trade secret is 
obtained by any of the following means:   
1) independent di scovery or creation;  
2) observing, studying, disassembling or testing a product or object which has been made 
available to the public or is lawfully in the possession of the person who obtained the 
information and who is free from any legally valid duty t o limit the acquisition of a trade secret;   
3) exercise of the right of workers or workers' representatives to information and consultation 
in accordance with European Union law;   
4) in accordance with good business practices.  
The acquisition, use or di sclosure of a trade secret shall be considered lawful when 
such acquisition, use or disclosure is required or permitted under law.   
 
 
  
 The acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret shall be considered lawful to the 
extent that such acquisition, u se or disclosure is required or permitted by European Union law.  
 
Unlawful acquisition, use or disclosure of trade secrets  
Article 5  
 
Acquisition of a trade secret without the consent of the holder of the trade secret shall 
be considered unlawful whenever carried out by:   
1) unauthorised access to, appropriation of, or copying of any documents, objects, materials, 
substances or electron ic files, lawfully under the control of the trade secret holder, containing 
the trade secret or from which the trade secret can be deduced, or  
2) contrary to good business practice.  
           The use or disclosure of a trade secret shall be considered unl awful whenever carried 
out, without the consent of the trade secret holder, by a person who is found to meet any of 
the following conditions:  
1) having acquired the trade secret unlawfully,  
2) being in breach of a confidentiality agreement,   
3) being in  breach of a contractual duty which stipulates the use of the trade secret,  
4) being in breach of duty not to disclose the trade secret.   
Production, offering or placing on the market of infringing goods, i.e. import, export or 
storage of infringing good s for those purposes, shall also be considered an unlawful use of a 
trade secret if the person who undertook such activities knew or ought, under the 
circumstances, to have known that the trade secret was used unlawfully.  
          The goods referred to i n paragraph 3 of this Article are goods whose design, 
characteristics, functioning, production process or placing on the market significantly benefit 
from trade secrets that have been unlawfully acquired, used or disclosed.  
The acquisition, use or disclosu re of a trade secret shall also be considered unlawful 
whenever a person, at the time of the acquisition, use or disclosure, knew or ought, under the 
circumstances, to have known that the trade secret had been obtained directly or indirectly 
from another p erson who was using or disclosing the trade secret unlawfully.  
 
Dismissal of application  
Article 6  
 
The competent court shall dismiss the application for determining the measures 
referred to in Article 7 of this Law, i.e. it shall reject the claim referre d to in Article 11 of this 
Law, if the alleged acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret was carried out for:   
1) detection of omissions, irregularities or illegal activities, provided that the alleged respondent 
acted for the purpose of protecting  the general public interest;  
2) disclosure of trade secret by workers to their representatives as part of the legitimate 
exercise by those representatives of their functions in accordance with the law, provided that 
such disclosure was necessary for the legitimate performance of the functions of those 
representatives;  
3) for the purpose of protecting a legitimate interest recognised by the law;  
4) for exercising the right to access the information in accordance with the law which regulates 
the right to access the information held by public authorities and for exercising the right to freedom of expression and information in accordance with the law  which regulates media 
expression and information, including respect for the freedom and pluralism of the media;  
5) for exercising the right to freedom of expression and information as set out in the Charter of 
Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in cluding respect for the freedom and pluralism 
of the media;  
6) disclosure of trade secret by workers to their representatives as part of the lawful exercise 
by those representatives of their functions in accordance with the EU law, provided that such 
disclosure was necessary for that exercise;  
7) for the purpose of protecting a legitimate interest recognised by the European Union law.  
 
 
Provisional measures for unlawful acquisition, use or disclosure of trade secret  
Article 7  
 
In order to prevent the unla wful acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret, the 
holder of a trade secret  or the licensee, to the extent authorized to do so on the basis of a 
concluded contract or law  (hereinafter: the licensee), may request the imposition of provisional 
measures even before filing a lawsuit.  
           The competent court may, at the request of the holder of the trade secret  or the licensee , 
order the following provisional measures against the alleged infringer :  
1) the cessation of or the prohibition of the use or disclosure of the trade secret on a 
provisional basis;  
2) the prohibition of the production, offering, placing on the market or use of infringing 
goods, or prohibition of the importation, export or sto rage of infringing goods;  
3) the seizure or delivery up of the suspected infringing goods, including imported 
goods, so as to prevent their entry into, or circulation on, the market.  
The competent court may order the measures referred to in paragraph 2 of  this Article, 
provided that the applicant provides appropriate guarantees or security of the same value, in 
order to secure compensation for damage suffered by the alleged inf ringer or a third party 
affected by the measures.    
 
Guarantee  
Article 8  
 
             The competent court may, at the request of the holder of the trade secret or the 
licensee instead of the measures referred to in Article 7, paragraph 2 of this Law, allow the 
alleged infringer to continue the alleged unlawful use of the trade secre t by lodging of 
guarantees intended to ensure the compensation for damages which may be suffered by the 
holder of the trade secret  or the licensee .   
Lodging of guarantees in exchange for the disclosure of a trade secret shall not be 
permitted.  
 
 
Submission of evidence to order provisional measures  
Article 9  
 
In order to determine the measures referred to in Article 7 of this Law, the competent 
court shall require the applicant to submit evidence in order to make it probable that the trade secret w as unlawfully acquired, used or disclosed, or that there is a risk that a trade secret 
may be acquired unlawfully, in order to make sure that:   
1) trade secret exists;  
2) the applicant is a holder of a trade secret  or a licensee , and   
3) a trade secret has been u nlawfully acquired, that it is unlawfully used or has been unlawfully 
disclosed, i .e. that the unlawful acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret is imminent.   
The competent court is obliged to take into account, when deciding on provisio nal 
measures, the following:   
1) value and specificity of a trade secret;  
2) measures undertaken in order to protect a trade secret;   
3) conduct of the alleged infringer in acquiring, using or disclosing a trade secret;   
4) impact of unlawful use or di sclosure of a trade secret;   
5) legitimate interests of the parties and the possible impact of the acceptance or rejection of 
the measures on the parties;   
6) legitimate interests of third parties;   
7) public interest, and   
8) protection of basic human  rights.  
 
Revo cation of provisional measures  
Article 10  
 
The competent court shall revoke the measures referred to in Article 7 of this Law if:   
1) the applicant fails to file a lawsuit before the competent court within a period which 
may not be longer than 20 working days or 31 calendar days from the date of delivery of the 
decision ordering the provisional measure to the holder of the trade secre t or the licensee , 
whichever is longer, or  
2) the information in question is not in accordance with Article 2 of this Law for reasons 
for which the alleged infringer is not responsible.   
 At the request of the alleged infringer or the injured third party,  the competent court 
may order the applicant to provide those persons with appropriate compensation for the 
damage caused by the measures referred to in Article 7 of this Law, if those measures are:  
- repealed in accordance with paragraph 1, item 1 of this  Article; or  
- have ceased to produce legal effect by reason of the applicant 's act or omission, or  
- if it is subsequently established that there was no illegal acquisition, use or disclosure 
of a trade secret, or the danger of such behavior occurring.   
 
Tužba  
Article 11  
 
          In order to prevent the unlawful acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret, the holder 
of the trade secret or the licensee may file a lawsuit within three years from the date he/she 
learned of the violation and the infringer, and no later than five years from the date when the 
violation was committed in accordance with the law.  
The holder of a trade  secret or the licensee may file a lawsuit against the infringer and by 
means of it demand with the competent court:  
1) the cessation of or, as  the case may be, the prohibition of the use or disclosure of the trade 
secret; and/or  2) the prohibition of the production, offering, placing on the market or use of infringing goods, 
respectively  the prohibition of the importation, export or storage of i nfringing goods for those 
purposes ; and/or 
3) the adoption of the appropriate corrective measures with regard to the infringing goods; 
and/or  
4) the destruction of all or part of any document, object, material, substance or electronic file 
containing or embodying the trade secret or, where appropriate, the delivery up to the applicant 
of all or part of those documents, objects, materials, substances or electronic files.    
The measures referred to in paragraph 2 item 3 of this Article are:  
1) recall of the infringing goods from the market;  
2) depriving the infringing goods of their infringing quality;  
3) destruction of the infringing goods or, where appropriate, their withdrawal from the market, 
provided that the withdrawal does not undermi ne the protection of the trade secret in question.  
In case of ordering the withdrawal of the infringing goods from the market, the 
competent court may order, at the request of the trade secret holder  or the licensee , that the 
goods be delivered up to the holder  or the licensee , or to charitable organisations.    
The competent court shall order that the measures referred to in paragraph points 3 
and 4 of this Article be carried out at the expense of the infringer, unless there are particular 
reasons for not doing so.  
The competent court shall be required, when considering the application for injunctions 
and corrective measures provided for in paragraphs 2 to 4 of this Article and assessing their 
proportionality, to take into account the specific circumstance s of the case, including, where 
appropriate:  
1) the value or other specific features of the trade secret;  
2) the measures taken to protect the trade secret;  
3) the conduct of the infringer in acquiring, using or disclosing the trade secret;  
4) the impac t of the unlawful use or disclosure of the trade secret;  
5) the legitimate interests of the parties and the impact which the granting or rejection of the 
measures could have on the parties;  
6) the legitimate interests of third parties;  
7) the public interest; and  
8) the safeguard of fundamental rights.  
 
Restriction and termination of measures  
Article 12  
 
 Where the competent judicial authorities limit the duration of the measures referred to 
in Article 11 of this Law, such duration shall be sufficient to eliminate any commercial or 
economic advantage that the infringer could have derived from the unlawful acquisition, use or 
disclosure of the trade secret.  
 The competent court shall revoke the measures referred to in Article 11 of this Law, 
upon the request of the respondent, if the information in question no longer meets the 
requirements of Article 2 for reasons that cannot be attributed directly or indirectly to the 
respondent.  
The competent court may order, at the request of the person liable to be subject to the 
measures provided for in Article 11 of this Law, pecuniary compensation to be paid to the 
injured party instead of applying those measures if all the following conditions are met:  1) the person concerned at the time of use or disclosure neither knew nor ought, under 
the circumstances, to have known that the trade secret was obtained from anothe r person who 
was using or disclosing the trade secret unlawfully;  
2) execution of the measures in question would cause that person disproportionate 
harm; and   
3) pecuniary compensation to the injured party appears reasonably satisfactory.  
Pecuniary comp ensation referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article shall not exceed the 
amount of royalties or fees which would have been due, had that person requested 
authorisation to use the trade secret in question, for the period of time for which use of the 
trade s ecret could have been prohibited.  
 
Damages  
Article 13  
 
The competent court may, upon the request of the person referred to in Article 11 
paragraph 1 of this Law, order an infringer who knew or ought to have known that he, she or it 
was engaging in unlawf ul acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret, to pay to the trade 
secret holder  or the licensee damages appropriate to the actual prejudice suffered as a result 
of the unlawful acquisition, use or disclosure of the trade secret.  
When setting the da mages referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, the competent 
court shall take into account:  
- negative economic consequences, including lost profits, which the person referred 
to in Article 11 paragraph 1 of this Law suffered;  
- unfair profits made by the infringer ; 
- moral prejudice caused to the trade secret holder by the unlawful acquisition, use 
or disclosure of the trade secret.  
Notwithstanding paragraph 2 of this Article, the competent court may, in appropriate 
cases, set the damages as a lump sum on t he basis of elements such as, at a minimum, the 
amount of royalties or fees which would have been due had the infringer requested 
authorisation to use the trade secret in question.  
The competent court may determine compensation for damage that should be 
compensated to the holder of a trade secret, due to unlawful acquisition, use or disclosure of 
a trade  secret, even though it has made a decision to carry out the measures referred to in 
Article 11, paragraph 2, items 3 and 4 of this law.   
  
Publication of judicial decisions  in the media  
Article 14  
 
The holder of a trade secret or the licensee may request that a final judgment 
approving, in whole or in part, the request for protection of a trade secret in case of unlawful 
acquisition, use or disclosure of a trade secret be published in print or electronic media at the 
expense of the infringer.  
In deciding whether to order a measure referred to in paragraph 1 and when assessing 
its proportionality, the competent court shall take into account, where appropriate, the value of 
the trade secret, the conduct of the infringer in acquiring, using or disclosing the trade secret, 
the impact of the unlawful use or disclosure of the trade secret, and the likelihood of further 
unlawful use or disclosure of the trade secret by the infringer,  as well as whether the 
information on the infringer would be such as to allow a n atural person to be identified, and, if so, whether publication of that information would be justified, in particular in the light of the 
possible harm that such measure may cause to the privacy and reputation of the infringer.  
 
Preservation of confidentia lity of trade secrets in the course of legal proceedings  
Article 15  
 
Person participating in legal proceedings relating to the unlawful acquisition, use or 
disclosure of a trade secret, or who has access to documents which form part of those legal 
proceedi ngs, are not permitted to use or disclose any trade secret or alleged trade secret which 
the competent court has, in response to a duly reasoned application by an interested party, 
identified as confidential and of which they have become aware as a result of such participation 
or access.  
Persons referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article are obliged to keep the trade secret 
that they learned about by participating in the procedure or accessing documents even after 
the end of the court procedure.   
Obligati on of keeping the trade secret shall cease to exist if:  
1) where the alleged trade secret is found, by a final decision of competent court, not to meet 
the requirements set out in Article 2 of this Law; or  
2) where over time, the information in question becomes generally known among persons 
within the circles that normally deal with that kind of information.  
The competent court shall, on a duly reasoned application by a party, take specific 
measures necessary to preserve the confidentiality of any trade secret or alleged trade secret 
used or referred to in the course of legal proceedings relating to the unlawful acquisition, use 
or disclosure of a trade secret.  
 The measures referred to in the paragraph 4 of this Article are:  
 1) restricting access to a ny document, submitted by the persons referred to in 
paragraph 1 of this Article, containing trade secrets or alleged trade secrets submitted by the 
parties or third parties, in whole or in part, to a limited number of persons;  
2) restricting access to he arings, when trade secrets or alleged trade secrets may be 
disclosed, and the corresponding record or transcript of those hearings to a limited number of 
persons;  
3) making available to any person other than those comprised in the limited number of 
person s referred to in points 1 and 2 a non -confidential version of any judicial decision, in which 
the passages containing trade secrets have been removed or redacted.  
4) exclusion of the public from the entire or part of the proceeding.  
The number of persons referred to in paragraph 5 items 1 and 2 of this Article shall be 
no greater than necessary in order to ensure compliance with the right of the parties to the 
legal proceedings to an effective remedy and to a fair trial, and shall include, at least, one 
natural person from each party and the respective lawyers or other representatives of those 
parties to the legal proceedings.  
When deciding on the measures referred to in paragraphs 1 to 6 and assessing their 
proportionality, the competent judicial authorit ies shall take into account the need to ensure 
the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial, the legitimate interests of the parties and, 
where appropriate, of third parties, and any potential harm for either of the parties, and, where 
appropriate,  for third parties, resulting from the granting or rejection of such measure.  
Any processing of personal data pursuant to paragraphs 1 to 7 of this Article shall be 
carried out in accordance with the provisions of the law governing the protection of personal 
data.   
Delayed application  
Article 16  
 
Provisions of Article 4, paragraph 1, item 3 and paragraph 3 and Article 6, paragraph 
1, item 5, 6 and 7 of this Law shall apply from the date of Montenegro's accession to the 
European Union.  
 
Initiated proceedings  
Article 17  
 Proceedings that have not reached a final decision by the date of entry into force of 
this Law shall be terminated in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Protection of 
Unpublished Data (Official Gazette of Montenegro, No. 16/07 and 73/08).  
 
Termination of Effectiveness  
Article 18  
 
On the day this Law enters i nto force, the Law on Protection of Unpublished Data 
(Official Gazette of Montenegro, No. 16/07 and 73/08) shall cease to be effective.  
 
Entry into force  
Article  19 
 
This Law shall enter into force on the eighth day from the day of its publication in the 
"Official Gazette of Montenegro".