California Health and Safety Code 25257 – (a) A person providing information pursuant to this article may, …
(a) A person providing information pursuant to this article may, at the time of submission, identify a portion of the information submitted to the department as a trade secret and, upon the written request of the department, shall provide support for the claim that the information is a trade secret. Except as provided in subdivision (d), a state agency shall not release to the public, subject information supplied pursuant to this article that is a trade secret, and that is so identified at the time of submission, in accordance with Sections 7924.510 and 7924.700 of the Government Code and § 1060 of the Evidence Code.
(b) This section does not prohibit the exchange of a properly designated trade secret between public agencies, if the trade secret is relevant and necessary to the exercise of the agency’s jurisdiction and the public agency exchanging the trade secrets complies with this section. An employee of the department that has access to a properly designated trade secret shall maintain the confidentiality of that trade secret by complying with this section.
Terms Used In California Health and Safety Code 25257
- department: means State Department of Health Services. See California Health and Safety Code 20
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: means any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, or company. See California Health and Safety Code 19
- State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Health and Safety Code 23
(c) Information not identified as a trade secret pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be available to the public unless exempted from disclosure by other provisions of law. The fact that information is claimed to be a trade secret is public information.
(d) (1) Upon receipt of a request for the release of information that has been claimed to be a trade secret, the department shall immediately notify the person who submitted the information. Based on the request, the department shall determine whether or not the information claimed to be a trade secret is to be released to the public.
(2) The department shall make the determination specified in paragraph (1), no later than 60 days after the date the department receives the request for disclosure, but not before 30 days following the notification of the person who submitted the information.
(3) If the department decides that the information requested pursuant to this subdivision should be made public, the department shall provide the person who submitted the information 30 days’ notice prior to public disclosure of the information, unless, prior to the expiration of the 30-day period, the person who submitted the information obtains an action in an appropriate court for a declaratory judgment that the information is subject to protection under this section or for a preliminary injunction prohibiting disclosure of the information to the public and promptly notifies the department of that action.
(e) This section does not authorize a person to refuse to disclose to the department information required to be submitted to the department pursuant to this article.
(f) This section does not apply to hazardous trait submissions for chemicals and chemical ingredients pursuant to this article.
(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 615, Sec. 251. (AB 474) Effective January 1, 2022. Operative January 1, 2023, pursuant to Sec. 463 of Stats. 2021, Ch. 615.)