Is reverse engineering a valid defense in a trade secret
infringement lawsuit in Taiwan? Taiwan's Supreme Court
delivered a decision on this issues in June 2021. Taiwan High
Prosecutors Office v. Chen, 110 Tai Shang 3193, Taiwan's
S. Ct. (June 2021). The answer is
The Defendant's Reverse Engineering Argument
In this criminal lawsuit, the defendant was indicted on the
charge of divulging trade secrets of his former employer, a forming
machine manufacturer. The former employer claimed that, after the
defendant left the company to start his own, he engaged in selling
forming machines produced based upon a trade secret he had obtained
while working with the former employer as its general manager. The
trade secret, contained in several PDF and CAD (computer-aided
design) files, was the design for a double-sided UV forming machine
the former employer customized for a client, and was
password-protected and accessible by authorized persons only.
Launching a raid on the
