ARTICLE · 13 AUGUST 2020

Trade Secrets: In The News Again

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Recent news stories have once again shone a spotlight on the issue of trade secrets.

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Recent news stories have once again shone a spotlight on the issue of trade secrets.

One article speaks about how a Chinese citizen, Zhang Hao, was convicted in the USA for stealing trade secrets from two US tech companies. These trade secrets enabled Hao's own firm, working together with a Chinese university, to unfairly compete in the market for radio frequency filters on electronic systems. The brazen Hao went on to patent these trade secrets, but he's in serious trouble now. Although out on bail of USD500 000, he faces a potential prison term of 15 years for economic espionage and 10 years for theft of trade secrets.

An FBI spokesperson gave some context to this case: "Economic espionage is a pervasive threat throughout the US, particularly the San Francisco Bay area and Silicon Valley which is the centre of innovation and technology. This case exemplifies how easily a few motivated employees can conspire to misappropriate intellectual property for the

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