Enforcement
The information must be non-public, commercially valuable, and subject to corresponding secrecy measures.
Contracts matter, but courts and authorities examine actual controls and conduct.
Be able to identify the secret, prove ownership or control, and show how access and misuse occurred.
China's revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law has applied since 15 October 2025.
Send us the issue, the relevant rights, and any deadline. We will route it to the right practice lead within one business day.
Contact UsA claim cannot rest on a label such as 'our technology' or 'customer data.' Identify the information with enough precision to distinguish it from public knowledge and ordinary employee skill. Examples may include parameters, formulas, source code, process windows, supplier terms, pricing models, customer requirements, and non-public product roadmaps.
Create a trade-secret register that records the information category, business value, owner, location, authorised users, protection level, and review date. The register should describe the boundary without reproducing the secret unnecessarily.
Corresponding secrecy measures can include confidentiality clauses, access permissions, identity management, logging, encryption, document marking, visitor control, segmented production, clean-desk rules, download restrictions, and return or deletion procedures. The right mix depends on the information and how the business actually works.
An NDA cannot compensate for a shared folder open to everyone. Conversely, expensive technical controls will fail if managers routinely send files through personal accounts or allow suppliers to retain unrestricted copies.
Employment documents should define confidentiality duties, invention reporting, permitted systems, return of materials, and post-employment obligations within legal limits. Onboarding should grant only needed access; role changes should trigger review; departure procedures should preserve devices and logs, remove access promptly, and confirm return or deletion.
Supplier, manufacturer, distributor, and joint-development contracts should state permitted use, subcontracting limits, ownership of improvements, audit rights, incident reporting, and secure destruction. Give each partner only the information required for its task.
Maintain dated versions, access records, confidentiality acknowledgements, meeting lists, transfer logs, and evidence of commercial value. If a dispute occurs, the company must connect a defined secret to the suspected party's access and to information found in the competing product or business activity.
Use lawful investigation methods. Preserve systems before interviewing suspects, coordinate IT and legal teams, and avoid altering metadata or accessing personal accounts without authority.
The first hours may determine whether evidence and secrecy survive. The plan should identify who can suspend access, preserve devices, engage forensic support, send notices, seek administrative action or court preservation, and communicate with customers. Remediation should close the control failure while keeping the response proportionate to the evidence.
National People's Congress: Anti-Unfair Competition Law (2025 Revision)
Supreme People's Court: Judicial Interpretation on Technology Contract Disputes
This article is general information about Chinese IP practice, not legal advice for a specific matter. It was last reviewed on 2026-08-21. Rules, fees, and timelines change; confirm current requirements before acting. For advice on your situation, contact our team.