Current through Public Act 103-1052
(a) All articles representing a trade secret reported to or otherwise obtained by the Agency, the Board or the Department in connection with any examination, inspection or proceeding under this Act, shall be considered confidential and shall not be disclosed, except that such articles may be disclosed confidentially to other officers or employees concerned with carrying out this Act or when relevant to any proceeding under this Act. In any such proceeding, the Agency, the Board, the Department or the court shall issue such orders as may be appropriate, including the impoundment of files or portions of files, to protect the confidentiality of trade secrets.(b) The Board shall adopt regulations under Title VII of this Act which prescribe: (i) procedures for determining whether articles represent a trade secret; and (ii) procedures to protect the confidentiality of such articles. All such regulations shall be considered substantive regulations for purposes of Section 28 of this Act.(c) As used in this Section: (1) "article" means any object, material, device or substance, or whole or partial copy thereof, including any writing, record, document, recording, drawing, sample, specimen, prototype, model, photograph, culture, microorganism, blueprint or map;(2) "representing" means describing, depicting, containing, constituting, reflecting or recording; and(3) "copy" means any facsimile, replica, photograph or other reproduction of an article, and any note, drawing or sketch made of or from an article.