What are the legal liabilities for infringement of trade secrets
1. Civil liability. The infringement of trade secrets is first of all a civil infringement and therefore should bear civil liability. The General Principles of Civil Law of our country do not specifically provide for civil liability for infringement of trade secrets. It is generally believed that according to the basic principles of the general principles of civil law, infringement of trade secrets should bear civil responsibilities such as cessation of infringement, compensation for losses, restoration of reputation, elimination of influence, and apology according to the circumstances.
Ceasing the infringement is generally a relief measure taken after the court makes a judgment on the substantive issues of the infringement lawsuit. According to Article 162 of the Supreme People's Court's "Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Implementation of the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China (Trial)", for trade secret infringement cases, if the right holder of the trade secret can prove the following points, the court may also At the request of the right holder, a ruling to stop the infringement shall be made in the pre-litigation proceedings: the plaintiff has preliminarily proved that the defendant has infringed its trade secrets; if the infringement is not stopped, irreparable losses will be caused to the right holder; stopping the infringement will not cause any harm to the defendant. Unreasonable harm. Rights holders who request the court to first rule to stop the infringement should provide guarantees.
For physical carriers that record or embody trade secrets, the infringer shall return them to the right holder in accordance with the law, or destroy them under the supervision of the right holder. If the infringer has illegally obtained but has not yet disclosed, used or allowed a third party to use another person's trade secret, the infringer shall not disclose, use or allow others to use it.
2. Administrative responsibilities. According to Article 7 of the Several Provisions on the Prohibition of Infringement of Trade Secrets, those who violate Article 3 of these Provisions shall be ordered by the industrial and commercial administration authorities to cease the illegal conduct in accordance with Article 25 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and may A fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan may be imposed depending on the circumstances. When imposing penalties in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the industrial and commercial administrative organs may handle the infringing articles as follows:
(1) Order and supervise the infringer to remove the commercially-contained articles Secret drawings and softwareand other relevant information shall be returned to the right holder.
(2) Supervise the infringer to destroy products produced using the right holder’s trade secrets and entering the market that will cause the trade secrets to be disclosed. However, this is excepted if the rights holder agrees to acquisition, sale and other processing methods.
3. Criminal liability. According to Article 219 of the Criminal Law, serious infringement of trade secrets may constitute a crime and require criminal liability. According to the principles of criminal law and administrative law, if the infringement of trade secrets constitutes a crime, after the perpetrator bears criminal liability, he does not need to bear administrative liability.
It should be noted that since the right holder of a trade secret includes the owner and the licensee, the owner and the licensee shall be liable for any infringement of trade secrets. The licensee has the right to require the infringer to bear infringement liability. However, after a trade secret is illegally disclosed by others, the trade secret no longer becomes a "secret" and can be freely used by the public. The owner of the original trade secret has no right to require the original licensee to pay royalties. Of course, the owner's loss of royalties can be claimed as compensation from the infringer.
The above knowledge is the answer of the editor of Legal Savior Network to the question "What are the legal responsibilities for infringement of trade secrets". If readers need legal help, Welcome to Legal Savior Network for legal consultation.