Can the infringement of trade secrets constitute a crime
Constitution. According to the criminal law, infringement of trade secrets and causing heavy losses to the right holder of the trade secret shall constitute a crime. The criminal law specifically lists three acts of infringement of trade secrets. Any one of the following acts constitutes a crime:
1. Using theft, inducement, coercion or other Obtain the business secrets of the right holder through unfair means. The person who commits this act is usually a competitor of the owner of the trade secret. "Other unfair means" include recruiting and poaching talents with high salaries, paying large sums of money to buy people who know secrets, etc. The purpose of "talent poaching" here is to obtain other people's business secrets, not simply to hire talents with high salaries. "Right holder" includes the owner of the trade secret and the user of the trade secret with the permission of the owner of the trade secret. A trade secret user is a person who enters into a trade secret license contract with the trade secret owner. According to regulations, users of trade secrets may only use them themselves and may not disclose or allow others to use them.
2. Disclose, use or allow others to use through theft, inducement, coercion or other The right holder’s trade secrets obtained through unfair means. "Disclosure" refers to the act of revealing to others the business secrets of others that the actor obtained through improper means. "Use" means use by yourself.
3. Violate the agreement or the obligee's requirement to keep business secrets, disclose, use or allow others to use the business secrets in his possession. Mainly refers to the fact that the trade secrets possessed by the actor were obtained legally, but violated the agreement with the obligee or the obligee's requirement to keep the trade secrets, and disclosed, used or allowed a third party to use it in breach of contract. the trade secrets it has acquired. The person who carries out this act may be a party who has entered into a licensing contract with the enterprise that owns the trade secret. It may also be a technical staff member of the unit who obtained the trade secret due to work relationship, but told others without permission or used it himself or allowed others to use it. The above-mentioned infringement of trade secrets by the perpetrator must cause heavy losses to the owner of the trade secret to constitute a crime.
In addition, although the third party himself has not directly committed the above-mentioned infringement acts, if he knows or should know that others have committed the above three infringements of trade secrets, he still obtains the information from others. Anyone who uses or discloses trade secrets of others will be punished as a crime of infringement of trade secrets. Since the third party is not the person directly responsible for illegally obtaining trade secrets, the third party must be subjectively aware of it to constitute a crime.
The above knowledge is the answer of the editor of Legal Savior Network to the question "Can infringement of trade secrets constitute a crime?" If readers need legal help , welcome to the Legal Savior Network for legal consultation.
