Trade Secrets 2023

Law and Practice

1. Legal Framework

1.1 Sources of Legal Protection for Trade Secrets

Unlike patents, trade marks and copyrights, there is no separate Trade Secret Law in China. But instead, a trade secret protection system based on the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, supplemented by the Civil Code (which integrates the former General Principles of the Civil Law and the Contract Law), the Law on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements, the Labour Contract Law, the Company Law, the Civil Procedure Law, and the Criminal Law. In the Civil Code passed in May 2020, trade secrets are, for the first time, explicitly classified as a type of intellectual property rights. The types and infringement acts of trade secrets are stipulated in Article 9 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. According to this provision: