Edited by Jirui ZHENG (Carrie)

With a rapid growth of global commerce and economics, trade secrets have   been a valuable intangible asset for more and more companies and play a great role in market competition. 

According to the data published by the Beijing IP Court, there were 182 hearings related to trade secret infringement in 2022, among which 136 has been concluded. Non-China litigants were from countries including the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, and Germany. During the litigation, quite a few plaintiffs failed to win the lawsuit because they had some difficulty in providing sufficient evidence, such as proof of the presence of confidentiality agreement and the value of the disclosed trade secrets.

To solve this problem, the court issued both English and Chinese versions of the Exemplary Cases of Proof in Trade Secrets Infringement (hereinafter referred as the “Proof” for short) in October 2022, which specified what information can be identified as trade secrets and listed a few examples of acts that can be deemed as infringements on trade secrets. Additionally, to strengthen the trade secret protection, articles in relation to trade secrets have been added to China's Civil Code, Anti-Unfair Competition Law and Criminal Law, as well as a number of judicial interpretations and local regulations. This largely indicates that China is taking measures to strengthen the judicial protection of trade secrets for years to come.

Cited from: <China Daily>