Fighting trade secret infringement cases in China

In 2011, several employees of a foreign-invested company in Shanghai decided to leave their employer to establish a direct competitor. Planning their escape well in advance, the employees collected customer lists and product information from the subsidiary, and transferred these to their personal email accounts. A company was established through proxies, meanwhile the employees resigned one by one. When the company discovered what had happened, most of the damage was already done. Through their former sales manager the competitor had approached many of its clients: Using the confidential information taken from the foreign-invested company, the competitor offered the same products at terms which in each case were slightly more attractive.