Legal analysis
What is the nature of employees' taking away corporate customer lists and technical data? The key is to identify the legal nature of the customer list and technical data, and judge whether they belong to trade secrets or other intellectual property rights protected by law. Trade secrets refer to technical information and commercial information that are not known to the public, can bring economic benefits to the obligee, are practical and take confidentiality measures for the obligee. The reason why trade secrets are protected by law is that trade secret information can be used by the obligee by investing a lot of manpower, material resources and time in research and development, which can increase the economic interests of the obligee and increase the competitive advantage of the obligee in the industry. In order to constitute a trade secret, it is necessary to meet the above requirements, and not only reflect the simple information such as the customer's contact information and address, but also reflect the customer's trading habits, such as the order quantity and price. Whether it is some long-term stable customers or new customers, the economic benefits of the company can be guaranteed. No matter what the purpose of employees stealing company customer information is, it is an infringement of business secrets. Even if stealing customer information has no serious consequences, if a confidentiality agreement is signed, the company can still hold employees liable for breach of contract.
legal ground
People's Republic of China (PRC) Criminal Law Amendment. Article 219 of the Criminal Law is amended as: "Whoever commits one of the following acts of infringing on business secrets, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years and shall also or only be fined; If the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years, and shall also be fined: "(1) obtaining the business secrets of the obligee by theft, bribery, fraud, coercion, electronic intrusion or other improper means; (2) disclosing, using or allowing others to use the business secrets of the obligee obtained by the means mentioned in the preceding paragraph; (3) disclosing, using or allowing others to use the business secrets in their possession in violation of the confidentiality obligation or the obligee's requirement to keep business secrets. "Whoever knowingly obtains, discloses, uses or allows others to use the business secret shall be regarded as the crime of infringing the business secret." The obligee mentioned in this article refers to the owner of the business secret and the user of the business secret with the permission of the owner. "