Trade Secret Protection Research

In recent years,particularly after the enforcement of the Unfair Competition Law,trade secret and its protection become a problem being argued and studied in the circles of the justiciary and academic. There are urgent needs for us to study and promote trade secret protection,and formulate a "Uniform Trade Secret Law of P. R. China".As a kind of the property,trade secret was known in the ancient,but the legal protection to trade secret was originated on such historical background:social productivity highly developed,economic competition seriously sharpened and the violation of trade secret became a obstacle to the normal development of the social economy. The new technologies impact the various aspects of the social life in our new information age,whoever possesses more information,particularly undisclosed information,he or she may possesses more property than the anothers. In this sense,trade secret has become the source and power to enterprises' survival. The development of the new technologies,the globalization of the world economy and the sharpness of the market competition demand further more for trade secrets protection. On the other hand,as a kind of the intangible assets,trade secrets have become a very important premise to a enterprise's development along the road of market economy. The trade secret infringements create serious problems and harm extremely the social economy,some enterprises frequently use reputable means to obtain others' trade secret and seriously harm the interests of the trade secret right owner. Since these cases increase in a great deal in recent years,we must do our best work to protect the interests of trade secrets owner,to regulate the market order and to improve the environment of fair competition.A trade secret means the technological and business information which:(1) is undisclosed (has the secrecy);(2) can bring economic interests to the trade secrets owner,(3) is practicable and (4) is the object of reasonable precaution measures. The character of secrecy decides that a trade secret may be easily violated,so that we must develop multiple legal means of legal protection including civil law,administrative law and criminal law,also that we need a Uniform Trade Secrets Law to solve the new problems coming from the social economic practice. Health economy in our country must be a economy modulated by good laws,protect trade secrets of all kind of business is one of the legal basis to this goal. After 20 years' successful practice of the reform and opening,we have established a basic intellectual property law system including the Trademark Law,Patent Law,Copyright Law,Unfair Competition Law,Criminal Law also punishment crimes to intellectual property. This does not mean that every thing has been done. Now we began to concern the issues of trade secret protection,until now the legal system in this field has not established properly in our country. Due to the limitation such as legislative skills and experiences,the legislations of trade secret law are not satisfactory,the legal system of trade secret is defective and not sufficient to protect trade secrets. The function of trade secret law to protect legal interests of businesses hasn't brought into full play. The legal system must be promoted constantly and we do need a Uniform Trade Secret Law.There are two significant theories relating to trade secret protection summarized from the judicial practice:the theory of confidential relationship and the theory of torts. Torts law can protect trade secret more effectively for the long run. In the developed countries,trade secret law protectstechnological and business information which is secrecy,valuable and to be taken of precautions. The infringement actions of violating trade secret include:acquiring,using,disclosing a trade secret by unfair means;disclosing and using trade secret without its owner's consent;third person acquiring,using,disclosing a trade secret with the knowledge of infringement actions of others mentioned above. The judicatory relieves to trade...