Commercial Secrets Given Protection

About 45,000 people prosecuted for IPR infringements from 2016 to 2020

Procuratorates will step up efforts to protect commercial secrets in key technology fields and combat infringement that involves advanced and core technologies or threatens enterprises' survival and development, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on Monday.

Infringement of commercial secrets including by theft, fraud and illegally providing them to overseas institutions, organizations and personnel will be targeted.

Procuratorates will suggest large fines and probation restrictions for people involved in such offenses, said Song Jianli, deputy director of the top procuratorate's intellectual property prosecution office.

When dealing with infringement cases, prosecutors will need to protect commercial secrets and prevent malicious rivals from seeking criminal prosecution of competitors, he said.

The number of commercial infringement cases increased last year, with about 80 percent of offenders receiving relatively light punishment such as less than three years in prison, he said.

In 2018, the procuratorate in Ruian, Zhejiang province, prosecuted Jin Yiying, a former employee of an optical instrument company in Wenzhou in the same province.

Jin signed a confidentiality agreement when he joined the company in 2005. But after leaving it in 2011, he set up a new company in the name of his brothers-in-law and used technologies stolen from his former employer to produce similar products.

That led to his former employer suffering a loss of more than 1.22 million yuan ($189,000). Jin was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined 700,000 yuan.

Core technologies are often targeted, Song said, and many offenders are companies' employees or former employees. Perpetrators often make use of their positions to commit crimes and cover them up, making it hard for outsiders to discover them. They are generally well educated and are good at avoiding investigation, he said.

Procuratorates around the nation prosecuted about 45,000 people for infringements of intellectual property rights from 2016 to 2020, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Enterprises often discover infringements well after the illegal activities have taken place, meaning some evidence may have been lost. They can also have wide-ranging businesses, making investigations expensive and time-consuming.

A lack of professional appraisal institutions and personnel in many fields is another difficulty, Song said, because many commercial secrets have strong technical elements.

Zheng Xinjian, director of the top procuratorate's fourth prosecution office, said that criminals have been using new technologies and keep updating the means of infringement, making such crimes hard to discover.

Procuratorial teams are unable to fully meet the requirements of intellectual property work at present due to a lack of suitable skills, he said, adding that the Supreme People's Procuratorate set up an intellectual property prosecution office in November to strengthen comprehensive judicial protection of intellectual property rights.

The top procuratorate will strengthen cooperation with administrative and law enforcement departments, industry associations and e-commerce platforms to intensify publicity on intellectual property rights protection and make it easier for rights holders to protect their legitimate interests, Zheng said.  

Source: China Daily