On April 17, the Tianjin Third Intermediate People’s Court and the Third Branch of the Municipal People’s Procuratorate jointly held a press conference on judicial protection of intellectual property, reporting to the public on the achievements in IP judicial protection work and releasing typical criminal cases of IP infringement.

Feng XX’s Trade Secret Infringement Case

[Basic Facts]

Defendant Feng XX, an engineer at Company A, participated in the development of equipment for producing aluminum-silicon alloy with added flux and was responsible for safekeeping the equipment’s electronic blueprints. Defendant Tong XX is a shareholder of Company A. Tong paid Feng XX RMB 50,000 to acquire the blueprints and, in his wife’s name, registered Company B. He then, on behalf of Company B, signed an agreement with an outside company to provide those blueprints and manufacture the equipment. Tong, Feng, and others thereby obtained over RMB 700,000 in illicit gains. In 2023, both were apprehended by public security authorities, and the Third Branch of the Tianjin People’s Procuratorate brought them to trial before this court on charges of infringing trade secrets.

[Trial Results]

The court found that Company A owns the technical information at issue, which is not publicly known and generates business benefits for the company, and that Company A had taken reasonable confidentiality measures—thus the information qualifies as a trade secret. Feng, as an engineer, violated his confidentiality agreement by disclosing and permitting others to use the trade secret; Tong, as a shareholder, illegally stole, disclosed, and allowed others to use it. They were found to have committed joint crimes of trade-secret infringement, and the prosecution’s charges were upheld.

Given that both defendants truthfully confessed and actively returned all illicit gains—thereby compensating the victim for its losses—and showed remorse, the court sentenced Tong to one year’s imprisonment, suspended for one year and six months; and Feng to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for one year. Considering that their conduct undermined fair market competition, the court also imposed fines of RMB 252,000 on Tong and RMB 50,000 on Feng.

[Typical Significance]

The aluminum-silicon alloy new material at issue is an important environmentally friendly, high-performance material whose technology not only boosts traditional industries’ competitiveness but also spawns new business forms in new energy, high-end equipment, and the digital economy. Its R&D embodies substantial corporate investment of effort and funds. A leak of such a technical secret not only strips an enterprise of its market edge but also weakens other market players’ confidence to innovate further.

In this case, tempted by high profits, the defendants violated their confidentiality obligations, illegally disclosed the equipment’s technical blueprints to an outside company, and used them to manufacture infringing products—thereby harming the victim’s trade secrets. The court’s heightened sanctions and emphasis on restoring the innovation ecosystem demonstrate the “three-in-one” civil, administrative, and criminal trial mechanism’s effectiveness in combating IP crimes and safeguarding innovators’ core competitiveness.

By imposing substantial fines, the court significantly raised the cost of infringement, dismantling the economic basis of such crimes and signaling a zero-tolerance stance toward IP violation. During the proceedings, the defendants’ active return of illicit gains and compensation for losses ensured timely relief for the victim, fully safeguarding its rights and reinforcing enterprises’ confidence in judicial protection.

This trial underscores the judiciary’s strong protection of trade secrets in emerging-material and other new-productive-force sectors. Through criminal measures against infringement, it sends a clear “legal red line” message, encouraging enterprises to invest in innovation and fostering an ecosystem that respects and protects innovation—achieving an integrated outcome of punishment, compensation, and prevention.

本文原文为中文，本文由AI辅助翻译

The original text of this article is in Chinese; it was translated with the assistance of AI.