CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Chuanhong Long, Ji Liu and Xiao Jin, CCPIT Patent and Trademark Law Office
not heard in public. The trial process generally includes stages such as evidence exchange and cross-examination, court investigation and court debate. Court investigation and court debate are often carried out together. Except in a few cases, a witness who has given testimony shall appear and testify in court, otherwise their testimony cannot be used as the basis for independent determination of facts. Generally, trade secret cases are the same as other civil cases: the sec - ond instance is final, and the trial period is six months for the first instance and three months for the second instance. The above periods may be extended. 6.3 Use of Expert Witnesses In trade secret cases, the plaintiff and the defendant may hire expert witness to give tes - timony on the technical issues for which they are responsible. An expert witness can provide answers to professional and technical questions and ask questions of the other party’s expert wit - ness. However, in trade secret cases, it is more common to ask a professional judicial appraisal institution to issue an appraisal report, such as whether the alleged secret point is unknown to the public and whether the defendant’s informa - tion is the same as that of the trade secret. The appraisal expert shall appear in court. Although the cost of appraisals varies according to their contents, it is usually several hundred thousand yuan.
Law; if so, the applicant can require the court to make a conduct preservation ruling – ie, injunc - tion to order the defendant not to disclose, use or allow others to use the trade secret allegedly stolen from the applicant. The preconditions for the preservation ruling include: • the trade secret claimed by the applicant meets the constitutive requirements; • the fact of infringement exists or is about to happen; • irreparable damage will be caused if such an injunction is not granted; • a guarantee has been provided by the appli - cant according to law (see below); and • the injunction shall not harm the public inter - est. If the people’s court orders conduct preservation measures to be implemented, it shall reason - ably determine the duration of those measures according to the request of the applicant, the specific circumstances of the case and other factors. The effect of any ruling to stop the infringe - ment of intellectual property rights is generally maintained until the judgment of the case takes effect. The amount of guarantee provided by the appli - cant shall be equivalent to the losses that the respondent may suffer from the implementation of the conduct preservation measures, including reasonable losses such as lost sales income and storage expenses of the products involved. In the process of implementing the conduct preservation measures, if the losses that the respondent may suffer as a result exceed the guarantee provided by the applicant, the peo -
7. Remedies 7.1 Preliminary Injunctive Relief
According to the relevant judicial interpretation, when the applicant believes that their trade secret is about to be illegally disclosed, it should be determined whether it is “urgent” as stipulat - ed in Articles 100 and 101 of the Civil Procedure
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