CHINA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Mitchell Liu Minxuan and Sarah Lu Shijiao, AllBright Law Offices
In practice, an entrenched appraisal response is still most commonly observed, so a strategy of “early intervention and proactive evidence submission” is recommended. By submitting authoritative expert opinions and precise novelty search findings at the earliest stage, rights holders can steer investigative and judicial bodies toward a palette of fact‑finding tools before resorting to appraisal, thereby circum - venting futile or duplicate examinations, cutting costs and accelerating the enforcement process for corpo - rate complainants. 2) Facilitating inter‑organ dialogue In legislation, establishing consultation mechanisms by judicial organs in trade secret cases is to be rec - ommended, so that the investigation, prosecution and trial stages can apply unified standards from the perspectives of legal application and judgment, fur - ther reducing the case-handling burden caused by inconsistent standards. The Pudong New Area Provi - sions on Strengthening Trade Secret Protection have already made relevant legislative innovations, stipulat - ing that market supervision and administration depart - ments, public security organs, and people’s procura - torates must establish consultation mechanisms for cases involving trade secret infringement. Depending on the actual circumstances of the case, the city’s district procuratorate may also be required to provide opinions on the direction of investigation, evidence collection, and legal application. In practice, a legal team, acting as the agent of the rights holder, must recommend and initiate discus - sions with judicial departments regarding the back - ground facts and technical issues of the case from the beginning of the criminal case investigation. Within legal boundaries, consensus should be facilitated among all parties, providing legal opinions and sup - port rooted in extensive casework experience. Building infrastructure for long-term trade secret protection: Interaction between infrastructure and non-compete obligations For enterprises pursuing steady development, avoid - ing entanglement in trade secret-related litigation and constructing a long-term protection system encom - passing pre-emptive prevention, in-process response, and post-infringement rights protection is particularly
important. In 2025, focusing on two interconnected pillars – corporate trade secret infrastructure and integrated non‑compete enforcement – multi‑layered protection shields were constructed for businesses, aiming to overcome the twin obstacles of impractical compliance frameworks and unrecoverable non‑com - pete breaches. Trade Secret System Construction: Overcoming Implementation Difficulties and Building a Practical Protection System Demand among corporates for trade secret system construction is increasingly urgent, but, in practice, companies commonly find themselves in the “sys - tems are easy to establish, but difficult to implement” predicament. Conventional systems often remain on paper, making it hard to effectively embed them into daily business processes. The core pain points in corporate trade secret system construction are mainly reflected as follows. • In the disconnect between system design and busi- ness operations: For instance, in the stage of trade secret classification management, most companies use four-tier standard of “Top Secret, Confidential, Secret, Public” for secrecy levels and define criteria accordingly. However, front-line personnel often feel overwhelmed due to the significant human and material resources required for identifying secrets, ultimately leading to classification management being left deteriorating, or even becoming detri - mental evidence of “failure to take reasonable con - fidentiality measures” in infringement case trials. • In the mismatch between external system design and corporate management culture: Different com - panies have significant variations in organisational structure, decision-making processes, and division of labour. Lacking comprehensive due diligence before system formulation, the system build is likely to have significant gap between design and corporate reality. Addressing these pain points, the principle of “long- term planning, practicality first” needs to be adhered to in project execution. Comprehensive and long-term planning is conducted at the initial stage of a project, with tasks scheduled by importance, and multi-phase
50 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook