Trade secrets refer to technical and commercial information such as design materials, procedures, product formulas, manufacturing processes, manufacturing methods, management know-how, customer lists, supply information, production and marketing strategies. , unknown to the public, can bring economic benefits to the obligee, and is practical and confidential for the obligee. Among them, not being known to the public means that the information cannot be directly obtained from public channels; Being able to bring economic benefits to the obligee and being practical means that the information has determinable applicability and can bring real or potential economic benefits or competitive advantages to the obligee; The obligee adopts confidentiality measures, including signing confidentiality agreements, establishing confidentiality systems and taking other reasonable confidentiality measures.
In a broad sense, any confidential business information that constitutes the competitive advantage of an enterprise can be regarded as a business secret. Anyone who uses this information without permission except the holder will be regarded as unfair competition and infringement.
Article 10 of China's Anti-Unfair Competition Law stipulates: "Trade secrets refer to technical information and business information that are not known to the public, can bring economic benefits to the obligee, are practical, and are kept secret by the obligee."
Folding noun type
It belongs to any form and kind of financial, commercial, scientific, technical, economic or engineering information, including patents, plans, publications, programming, formulas, passwords, etc. It may be tangible or intangible information, it may be composed of various devices or files or experiences, or its storage and collection methods can be regarded as trade secrets.
It exists in the subjective definition of the owner rather than the actual combination of elements, and not all the combined elements need to be kept secret.
In essence, the trade secret law provides protection different from the exclusive right protection law (such as patent and copyright), and its main protection scope lies in protecting trade secrets, anti-espionage and anti-unfair competition.
Folding noun condition
As a trade secret, two important prerequisites are: it must be proved that the information owner has submitted a confidentiality application and that the information has commercial value or potential commercial value; Second, the applicant has taken appropriate protective measures to prevent information from being leaked, obtained and used without consent.
Different international organizations have different definitions of trade secrets. For example, TRIPS defines it as:
A) The configuration and assembly parts of non-entities or devices are generally understood as easy-to-understand information to deal with specific problems in a specific environment;
B) It has commercial value;
C) There are reasonable preventive measures to ensure the protection of its information under the legal environment.