[Typical Case Documentary]
The Putuo District Market Supervision Bureau investigated and prosecuted a company
Trade Secret Infringement Case
"Trade secrets" refers to commercial information such as technical information and business information that has commercial value and has been subject to appropriate confidentiality measures taken by the right holder, and is not known to the public. Illegal infringement of trade secrets will not only cause significant economic losses to trade secret rights holders, but also undermine the market environment for fair competition. For a long time, the Putuo District Market Supervision Bureau has attached great importance to the protection of trade secrets, and has continued to increase its efforts to investigate and punish illegal acts that infringe on the trade secrets of enterprises. The following case is a typical case of cracking down on trade secret infringement.
What are the reasons behind the frequent bidding of enterprises?
Recently, in the process of investigating and visiting enterprises, the Putuo District Market Supervision Bureau learned that a company A has recently carried out continuous steel procurement bidding, and it is the same unit - Company B that has repeatedly won the bid, which is rare in the industry. Law enforcement officers are keenly aware of the anomaly involved. After further understanding, it is found that the steel products that Company A needs to purchase are widely used in the market, and in the four recent bidding organized by Company A, Company B's purchase quotation, material model, and supply volume can accurately meet the needs of the target, which means that the subject information of Company A, that is, the trade secret, is likely to have been infringed.
Special case investigation to solve the case quickly
The law enforcement officers quickly carried out an investigation, and after investigation, Company A had taken confidentiality measures for the bidding and procurement information of this batch of steel before bidding, which was stored by a special website and managed by specific personnel. However, the law enforcement officers found a document suspected to be the procurement plan of Company A on the work computer of Company B, is the procurement plan consistent with the trade secrets of Company A?
To identify this critical issue, law enforcement officers used a hash comparison method, a specialized computer field, to conduct a technical analysis of the two parts of the information. After comparison, it was determined that the identity of the two data was confirmed, that is, Company B had obtained the trade secrets of Company A through illegal means before the bid was opened.
The facts of the violation are clear and must be severely punished
In the face of these key evidences, the person in charge of Company B confessed that he had bribed the trade secret managers of Company A by giving "benefit fees" to obtain the relevant trade secrets, and Company B was able to prepare in advance and was able to win the bid repeatedly. These pieces of evidence are interlocking and corroborating each other, and the facts of the violation are revealed.
In this case, Company B violated the provisions of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law by infringing on Company A's trade secrets by means of bribery, and the Putuo District Market Supervision Bureau imposed an administrative penalty of confiscation of all illegal gains and a fine on it in accordance with the law.
【Highlights of the case】
Cases of infringement of trade secrets are highly concealed and difficult to handle. In this case, the law enforcement officers discovered the clues of the case with their professional sensitivity, comprehensively used information technology to confirm the facts of the violation, peeled back the cocoons to confirm and restore the chain of evidence one by one, severely cracked down on the illegal acts of infringing on trade secrets, safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of market entities, and played a positive role in further standardizing the order of fair competition and optimizing the business environment.
Contributed by: Fairness Section, Legal Affairs Section, Integrated Law Enforcement Brigade
Edit: Office
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