Category Archives: Litigation

What Receives Protection as a Trade Secret in China?

Posted on by

By Albert Chen

In an essay posted several days ago, we discussed how infringing another’s trade secret is a kind of unfair competition. Although the Anti Unfair Competition Law contains a definition of trade secret in principle, this definition is not very detailed, and there might still be a fair number of differences between understanding and actual practice. Today’s essay will share the author’s research and analysis on whether Chinese law contains any further regulations on the term “trade secret.”

READ MORE

The Judicial Jurisdiction of Network Infringement in China

Posted on by

By Albert Chen

In the post Could Apple Use Objection to Jurisdiction to Prolong the Litigation Period?, we introduced the objection to jurisdiction Apple submitted to the Beijing Second Intermediate Court after it was sued by the China Writers Alliance over downloads in Apple’s App Store. In China, the infringement or tort cases shall be brought to the court of infringement place or the domicile of the defendant, and the infringement place may include the place where the infringement takes place or the place where the consequences of the infringement are felt. With regard to network infringement, could the place where the consequence of infringement is felt include any computer terminal? Today, we will introduce the relevant system.

READ MORE

Could Apple Use Objection to Jurisdiction to Prolong the Litigation Period?

Posted on by

By Albert Chen

The most watched copyright battle between Chinese Writer Alliance (the “Alliance”) and Apple was heard in Beijing No.2 Intermediate People’s Court on the 11th of this month. You may have read our previous essay on the private hearing of the case, and in fact, Apple has also filed an objection to the jurisdiction in the case. Nonetheless, the application was refused by the intermediate court and upheld by the high court after appeal. The lawsuit has been delayed by procedure for nearly half a year, as favored by Apple. Today, we are going to introduce the regulation on the objection to civil jurisdiction in China.

READ MORE

Has Apple Lost Opportunity of In-Camera Hearing on Its Case?

Posted on by

By Albert Chen

The most watched dispute between Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) and Chinese Writers Alliance (the “Alliance”) is heard on 11th of October in Beijing No.2 Intermediate People’s Court. That lawsuit is filed following the battle against Baidu by the Alliance. Before the hearing on 11th, Apple applied to the court for the hearing in camera with the claim that the case is with trade secret related. After the consideration by the court, such an application was refused by the judge, yet it still decided the procedure may switch into be in private when one the interrogation involves the business secret. In today’s post, you may see our analysis on the “lawsuit in camera” in China.

READ MORE

Legal Risk of Unlicensed User Data Disclosure by Internet Companies

By Albert Chen

It has been a chronic social problem that personal information could be released with no license, and that has brought widely seen information harassment, also a threat to the security of personal asset. The Economic Investigation Squad of Shanghai Police Department published a case in recent, in which the crime of illegally selling personal information has been investigated, and there involved more than 200 million pieces of information and thousands of corporate information. In an era of information, the Internet companies have a wide command of personal data compared with normal companies. Therefore, through today’s post, we would like to express our opinions on the risk and risk prevention of the information leakage.

READ MORE

How to Understand “Not Known to the Public” in Trade Secret Cases by China Law?

By Luo Yanjie

Trade secret must be “secret”, a message must be “non-public” for being trade secret. Generally speaking, Information or technique is not generally known for the public and cannot be directly obtained from the open channel. Today we would like to share the topic in China law with readers as follows:

I. The definition of “non-public” in the judicial interpretation

<Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Hearing Civil Cases Involving Unfair Competition> defines the “non-public” as follows:

READ MORE

How to Define Confidential Measures in Trade Secret Cases?

By Luo Yanjie

Article 10 of China <Law Against Unfair Competition> and Article 219 of <Criminal Law> defines “Trade Secret” as “Trade secret means technical information and operational information which is not known to the public, which is capable of bringing economic benefits to the owner of rights, which has practical applicability and which the owner of rights has taken measures to keep secret.” According to the definition, information must have “confidentiality measures” before it becomes trade secret. While in practice, what measures can be identified as legally effective “confidentiality measures ” has no clear standard. Today we would like to share the topic with readers.

READ MORE

How to Define Losses in Trade Secret Criminal Cases?

Posted on by

By Luo Yanjie

With the rapid economy development in mainland China, we also see an increase of infringements against industrial property right, especially those trade secret cases uncovered by traditional IPR laws. For those trade secret cases we have participated, the most head aching part shall be the crime liability establishment of the trade secret infringement in Chinese laws, for it could only be decided when the right owner suffers the losses of more than 500, 000 yuan. Today, we would like to share our opinions on the conviction of trade secret infringement as follows.

READ MORE

Legal Confusions and Difficulties of Industry and Commerce Department in Trade Secret Investigation

The power to administrative punishment on trade secret is enforced by State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and local administrations, and in a recent essay (note: the link is in Chinese) by Shanghai Industry and Commerce Administration on the trade secret investigation and evidence collection, the difficulties and confusion faced by the organ are highlighted. The post today is the digest and our comments hereby made:

 (I) The technology information examination and reverse problem

READ MORE

Why You should Trust Chinese Courts in Trade Secret Infringement Cases？

—Introduction to the Security Measures by the Courts in China

Recently, a judge from the Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People’s Court has published an article (in Chinese) Trial Experiences in Trade secret Infringement Cases (the article), and the Bridge IP Law Commentary has already introduce how to apply for evidence preservation in trade secret infringement cases in China. Today we would like to continuously introduce another part of the Article relating the security measures taken by the people’s courts in preventing the parties concerned in the proceeding from discourse of trade secrets.

READ MORE