A Research On Laborers' Duty Of Confidentiality And Prohibition Of Business Strife For The Protection Of Trade Secrets

In the era of economy based on knowledge, trade secrets have been animportant means by which enterprises gain advantages in the marketcompetition. However, the flow of laborers has put great impact on theprotection of trade secrets. It is necessary to clarify the laborers'duty of confidentiality so as to effectively protect the right holders'trade secrets. Besides that, it is a common manner to protect theenterprises' trade secrets by signing non-compete covenants withlaborers. This treatise first introduces the laborers' duty ofconfidentiality and prohibition of business strife systems of theAmerican and European developed countries and present situation of ourcountry, and then put forward useful suggestions for the perfection ofour corresponding systems.The first part illustrates the meaning of trade secrets by making abrief introduction to the concepts and constitutive requirements of tradesecrets stipulated in American laws, TRIPS agreement and laws andregulations of our country. This introduction establishes a basis for thepresentation and comparison of the laborers' duty of confidentiality andprohibition of business strife.The second part is divided into two sections. Section one firstly analyzes the basis from which the laborers' duty of confidentiality stems,and then makes an review on the theories and practices with respect tothe laborers' duty of confidentiality of a few countries from both CommonLaw System and Civil Law System, and lastly carries out an analysis tothe relationship between the protection of trade secrets and thelaborers' general knowledge and skills. Section two introduces thepresent situation in respect to the theories and legislative and judicialpractices in our country, and makes comments to the existing problems andconstructive suggestions for solving these problems.The third part expounds on general principles of the prohibition ofbusiness strife. This part first introduces the concepts and classes ofthe prohibition of business strife, and then analyzes the rationality ofthe prohibition of business strife, and makes comparison for the duty notto compete and the laborers' duty of confidentiality after thetermination of the employment relationship.The forth part introduces and reviews the prohibition of businessstrife systems of some other countries. Section one of this part makesan overall and detailed demonstration to the United States's prohibitionof business strife systems from five different facets. Section twointroduces the prohibition of business strife systems in a fewrepresentative European countries, such as Germany, Croatia, Switzerlandand Romania. Section three introduces Japanese system of the prohibitionof business strife. The last section of this part gives a briefintroduction to the foregoing prohibition of business strife systems.The last part of this treatise first analyzes the present situationof legislative and judicial practices and relevant theories concerningprohibition of business strife systems in our country, and then makespertinent researches to a few problems appearing from the practices, andmakes reviews to the business strife systems in agreement and raises reasonable suggestions for perfection in the end.