trade secret
noun · Geschäftsgeheimnis
Geschäftsgeheimnis for a trade secret, now under the GeschGehG of 2019, and the sting is § 2 GeschGehG, information counts as a Geschäftsgeheimnis only if it is protected by angemessene Geheimhaltungsmaßnahmen, reasonable secrecy measures, so a secret left unguarded is no secret in law. Handelsgeheimnis is the machine’s literal miss, and reverse engineering is now generally allowed, § 3 GeschGehG.
Which translation, when
Why
A trade secret is das Geschäftsgeheimnis, and the law changed enough in 2019 that an old translation now misleads. The GeschGehG, implementing the EU directive, replaced the patchy protection under § 17 UWG with a defined right, and its § 2 Nr. 1 GeschGehG adds a condition English law does not front, information is a Geschäftsgeheimnis only if it is secret, has commercial value because it is secret, and is the subject of angemessene Geheimhaltungsmaßnahmen, reasonable steps to keep it secret. So a company that never marked, restricted or contractually protected its information may find it holds no Geschäftsgeheimnis at all, and the point is easy to lose translating from a system where a duty of confidence can arise more loosely. The other shift is § 3 GeschGehG, which permits reverse engineering by default, observing and testing a lawfully obtained product, so trade-secret status alone no longer stops a competitor from taking a product apart, and a holder who wants to prevent that has to secure it by contract rather than rely on the statute. The older pairing Betriebs- und Geschäftsgeheimnis survives in habit, but the statute speaks of Geschäftsgeheimnis, and the machine literal Handelsgeheimnis is simply not the term.
Typical mistakes
- Information is a Geschäftsgeheimnis only with angemessene Geheimhaltungsmaßnahmen, § 2 Nr. 1 GeschGehG, so treating any confidential information as a protected trade secret misses the measures the statute requires before protection begins.
- Reverse engineering is lawful by default, § 3 GeschGehG, so trade-secret status alone does not prevent it, and a holder who wants to stop it must secure that by contract rather than assume the statute does.
- Handelsgeheimnis is a literal non-term and Betriebsgeheimnis is the old pairing, so the current word is Geschäftsgeheimnis and the trade secret should not shrink to either.
What matters
Confidentiality and NDA clauses meet a statutory condition: under the GeschGehG a Geschäftsgeheimnis exists only where reasonable secrecy measures protect it, § 2 Nr. 1, and reverse engineering is generally allowed, § 3. The clause assuming every confidential disclosure is a protected trade secret has skipped the measures the GeschGehG demands before protection begins.
What the machine misses
Trade secret comes back as Handelsgeheimnis in machine output, a literal compound that is not the legal term, or as the older Betriebsgeheimnis, when the statute since 2019 speaks of das Geschäftsgeheimnis under the GeschGehG. The machine also carries none of the condition the German law adds, § 2 Nr. 1 GeschGehG protects information only where reasonable secrecy measures are in place, so a translated trade secret can read as automatically protected when a German court would first ask what steps were taken to keep it secret.
Examples
| a trade secret | ein Geschäftsgeheimnis |
| to misappropriate a trade secret | ein Geschäftsgeheimnis verletzen |
| reasonable secrecy measures | angemessene Geheimhaltungsmaßnahmen |
| reverse engineering | das Reverse Engineering |