IPA IP 2024 Question 10

Information accumulated in a significant amount and managed electromagnetically for provision to specific third parties, not managed as a secret — the definition of shared data with limited access in Japan's Unfair Competition Prevention Act.

The category was added to the Act in 2018 to protect valuable data that a company shares with chosen partners, such as sensor or map data sold to subscribers. Three conditions must hold:

• •Limited provision: provided to specific persons as a business, not to the public
• •Significant accumulation: a large enough amount to have value
• •Electromagnetic management: access restricted by IDs and passwords, encryption and the like

Information managed as a secret is left out because trade secrets are protected separately (a 2023 amendment reworded the exclusion as trade secrets). Acquiring, using or disclosing such data by wrongful means is an act of unfair competition.

Answer (b)

Why not others:

• •(a) — the data is provided to specific persons as a business, repeatedly; nothing limits it to a single provision
• •(c) — information kept physically in a safe is not managed by electromagnetic means, which the definition requires
• •(d) — information managed as a secret is expressly excluded; trade secrets are a separate category under the same Act

Key rule: Shared data with limited access means limited provision, significant accumulation and electromagnetic management, and it is not a trade secret.

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