DeHeng Successfully Represented China's First Case of Trade Secret Infringement in Which the Amount of Loss Was Determined by the Reasonable License Fee

2022-04-02

On March 31, Tianjin Intellectual Property Court held a public hearing of the case in which the defendant surnamed Zhao was accused of infringing on trade secrets. This was the first trade secret infringement case in China where the loss amount was determined by reasonable license fee after the implementation of the Judicial Interpretation on Handling Criminal Cases of Infringing on Intellectual Property (3) jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. 

Case summary 

The defendant surnamed Zhao, while working for the sales department of a foreign-funded enterprise, stored a large number of company files in the portable hard drive distributed by the company without permission, and took it away with him after his resignation. It is verified that the tolerance parameters recorded in the design drawing contained in the hard drive are technical information unknown to the public and have high economic value. 

After stepping in the case, the first thing partners Han Li and Hao Zhe of DeHeng's Tianjin Office did was meeting the criminal suspect and reviewing the case files. They also held several face-to-face meetings and phone and video calls with the prosecutors and judges to fully communicate and exchange views. They drafted a number of legal instruments and were fully prepared before the trial. Finally, at the trial stage, the court sentenced Zhao to 10 months in prison and fined him RMB 60,000. Zhao said in court to obey the court decision and not to appeal.