데이터의 부정경쟁 유형으로의 보호에 관한 소고- 일본의 부정경쟁방지법 개정을 중심으로 -

Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act (“UCPA”) utilizes a method of enumerating acts or practices of unfair competition. As such, in order to be protected by the UCPA, an act or practice must be included in the list stipulated in the Act. Therefore, Japan appears to have enacted this Revision to the Act to provide more flexible response especially to the protection of data, including Big Data, which has emerged as a key issue in the changing environment, in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As the main content, the concept of limited shared data is provided, and wrongful acquisition, use, or disclosure of such limited shared data are regulated in a manner comparable to wrongful acquisition of trade secrets and added as new unfair competition practices. And dealing with (the) data was included in the subjects of protection of acts that deter and impair the effectiveness of the technical restriction measures. This Revision to Japanese UCPA may be evaluated to have involved many concerns, such as considering the protection system of intellectual property, in order to add types of unfair competition acts. That is, while copyright law preserves the principle that works with creativity are to be protected, a way to add as a type of unfair competition acts (but not granting rights) has been chosen to protect (the) data, In other words, in the method of protecting limited shared data, such instance as differentiating with and distinguishing from protection of trade secrets by excluding the element of manageability in the methods of protecting trade secrets, may show that there have been many concerns regarding the Revision to the Act. These concerns ultimately led to the addition of new types of protection under the UCPA, and Japan is expected to provide guidelines for more clear interpretation of the newly introduced types. This is expected to have many implications on for instance, improvement of the legal system of Korea in the future.