HELLO AND WELCOME to this inaugural edition of Global Trade Secrets, a publication that fuses expert insight on this critical but sometimes overlooked area of intellectual property law with the first global law firm rankings for trade secrets.

I’m delighted to introduce this new initiative from World IP Review for two key reasons. First, because trade secrets are an increasingly important aspect of intellectual property law—recent record judgments coupled with legislative developments in the US and Europe attest to that.

Second, because Global Trade Secrets marks the launch of a new string to WIPR’s bow. Under editor Baron Armah-Kwantreng, who has deep experience over a couple of decades in the market, we’re launching a law firm rankings programme under the WIPR Insights brand.

In this publication, you’ll find what we believe to be the first genuine global ranking of law firms for trade secrets, reflecting the fact that at the sharp end, trade secrets are cross border, complex and high value. Baron has spent several months wading through submissions, talking to the market and developing an understanding of how it works in order to produce rankings that we feel are robust and credible, but more than that, extremely useful for corporate counsel who find themselves with a trade secrets challenge.

In the coming year and beyond, you can expect more rankings of this nature as we build out the team, including national trade secrets rankings in addition to the global ones, as well as in the more traditional areas of IP such as patents and trademarks.

I’m personally grateful to all the law firms and corporates who have supported us in this endeavour. We know that rankings submissions are a time-consuming and sometimes thankless task for law firms, but I hope you’ll agree that in this instance, it has been time well spent.

I hope you enjoy the publication, and would welcome your feedback.