First China Trade Secret Litigation Injunction Ends in Favor of Eli Lily and Company

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(By You Yunting) We have introduced that Shanghai court issued the first trade secret litigation injunction in China pursuant to the new Civil Procedure Law. Recent, Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court made a judgment in favor of U.S. drug maker Eli Lily and Company and Eli Lily (China), determining that the defendant must cease infringing the trade secret of the plaintiff. In today’s post, we will introduce the abstract the judgment following with our comments.

Introduction to the Case:

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Trade Secret Litigation Injunction Rulings in China

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(By You Yunting) According to media reports (note: the link is in Chinese), Eli Lilly and Company and Eli Lilly (China) sued an employee named Huang in the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court. That court recently issued the first trade secret litigation injunction in China’s history, and ruled a litigation preservation that prohibited Huang from disclosing, using, or allowing any third party to use 21 documents that were protected as trade secrets by the plaintiff.

Inductions to the Case:

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Why China Supreme Court Agree with Resigned Employees Establishing Competing Businesses?

(By Luo Yanjie) Abstract: The experience an employee gains throughout the course of his employment is regarded as a personal right under the law, and even though an employer may spend a great deal of time and money cultivating the employee and improving their skill set, if there was no noncompete agreement entered into prior to this, the employer will usually not be able to impede or stop a resigned employee from starting another business to compete with his or her previous employer.

For most companies, talent is considered its most valuable asset. With the development of the economy, market competition grows ever more fierce, and many employers find themselves troubled at the prospect of a number of employees “job hopping” to competitors, bringing the benefit of the employers’ training, experience and expertise with them. The case introduced herein is a typical case in which the employee was not bound by a noncompete, nondisclosure, or similar agreement. Facing stiff competition, many employers file suit on the basis of unfair competition, and yet, due to lacking substantial evidence, many employers end up failing in bringing a successful case.

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Should Chinese Enterprise Employees Who Have Not Signed An NDA Still Have A Duty to Not Disclose?

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(By Albert Chen) In practice, we have seen numerous companies not signing any NDA or confidential clauses in employment contracts with their staff. But even so, taking into consideration confidentiality measures taken by a company, like making requirements for the handling of client information, and taking into consideration the confidential content of said information, one could easily conclude most companies intend to maintain nondisclosure of confidential information, and as a corollary staff and employees also maintain these efforts at nondisclosure.

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What Information Could Be Considered as Trade Secret in Tech Product Transaction in China?

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(By Albert Chen) The tech product transaction involves the information of technology and business. Among such information, to judge which part could be considered as trademark secret, it shall be based upon Article 10 of the Anti Unfair Competition Law, which regulates that to determine the trade secret, the court shall evaluate “whether it is known to the public”, “benefiting”, “practicability” and “confidentiality”.

Case Summary

In 1998, Shanghai Zhenxing Aluminum Co., Ltd. (the “Zhengxing Company”) developed a manufacturing technology, which the company used to produce articles. This technology created by Zhenxing set the standard for the production of the article. Shanghai Huikai Aluminum Co., Ltd. (the “Huikai Company”) was founded on September 10th 2003, and afterwards carried out the business in the same product manufacturing as Zhenxing. As investigated, among the 70 clients of Huikai, 68 once transacted with Zhenxing. For these clients, most products they purchased from Huikaiu were almost the same as those they bought from Zhenxing. Furthermore, Qin and Pan, who are now working in Huikai, are former employees of Zhenxing. During their employment with Zhenxing, the company signed confidential article in the labor contract and also an independent confidential agreement.

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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.

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