On June 5, 2020 China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), which regulates market competition, monopolies, intellectual property, and drug safety, released a national plan to combat intellectual property infringement. The plan is officially entitled “Key Points of the National Work to Crack Down on Intellectual Property Infringement and the Production and Sale of Counterfeit and Inferior Commodities in 2020.” The plan lists 35 points in 6 areas covering trademark, patent, copyright, and trade secret protection and makes special emphasis …
Category: Unfair Competition
China’s Supreme People’s Court Rules Customer Lists are not Trade Secrets
In decision (2019）最高法民再268号 dated December 16, 2019 and just recently published, the Supreme People’s Court of China (SPC) held that customer lists are not trade secrets even with signed confidentiality agreements. One of the defendants, former employees of the plaintiff, Huayang Xinxing Technology (Tianjin) Group Co., Ltd. , left Huayang to start Mai Da Keer (Tianjin) Technology Co., Ltd. after almost 20 years at Huayang. With their departure, the defendants took a customer list containing 43 customers’ data including the …
China Issues Ruling in First 5G Criminal Intellectual Property Law Case
The People’s Court of Nanshan District of Shenzhen recently issued a ruling believed to be the first 5G criminal intellectual property law case in China. 5G is the fifth generation technology standard for cellular networks, which cellular phone companies began deploying worldwide in 2019, the planned successor to the 4G networks which provide connectivity to most current cellphones. The Court held defendants Huang Mouyu and Wang Mou guilty of trade secret theft and sentenced them to three years in jail and a 150,000 RMB fine. The …
Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court OKs Parallel Imports
In a trio of cases dated May 6, 2020, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court allowed the parallel import of lightning surge protectors from Singapore into China. Parallel import is the import of a non-counterfeit product from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner. Specifically, in cases(2019)粤73民终6944号, (2019)粤73民终6975号, and (2019)粤73民终6976号 the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court held on appeal that parallel importation by Guangdong Shifu Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (广东施富电气实业有限公司) of the genuine surge protectors did not violate Chinese …