On The Crime Of Trade Secret Infringement

In the new era of knowledge-based economy, the importance of trade secret is playing an increasingly important role. In order to strengthen the protection of trade secret, trade secret infringement became a new accuse in Criminal Law in 1997. However, This crime has always been a controversial question in the circles of criminal law on the delimitation of trade secret, the concept of trade secret infringement, the constitution, etc. This paper has a discussion on some relevant problems about the crime of trade secret infringement. The article is composed of five parts: Part A introduces the legislation of trade secret infringement. Generally speaking, legislation model of trade secret infringement is classified into three types in some typical countries: decentralization, convergence and combination. The Chinese legal system adopts the legislative model of convergence. Part B analyses the delimitation, characteristics and range of trade secret. The four features: secrecy, values, termination and practicability have constructed the main characteristics of trade secret, whose range includes technology and management. Part C mainly discusses concept and constitution of trade secret infringement, which is a key topic in this essay. The definition of trade secret infringement means to obtain the trade secret by stealing, luring, coercion, other illegitimate means, disclosing, using, or allowing others to use their obtaining business secrets, leading to heavy losses. The object of the crime is a complex one.The objective aspects embody four patterns as are listed in the criminal law NO.219. The heavy losses belong to the actual losses of the obligee. The subject of the crime is a general one.As for the subjective aspects, the first three acts deserve to be deliberate. Nevertheless, the last one is divided into deliberation and fault. Part D analyses some problems about the crime and not the crime, the boundaries between the similar crime and the crime of trade secret infringement, and the criminal forms. The last part describes the author's own opinion on the legislative issues and perfect of trade secret infringement.