With the fast development of the Chinese economy in recent years, the enterprises, especially the high-tech ones, are gradually increasing their awareness and abilities in innovation, which has made the protection for trade secrets more and more important. However, for reasons of inadequate, unsystematic and incomplete legal protection of trade secrets, and because of inconsistencies in recognizing trade secrets, disunities of concepts, uncertainties of placement of the burden of proof, the loopholes and lack of objective standards in technical evaluation, ineffective penalties for infringing activities, and powerlessness of law enforcement, infringement of trade secrets has been on the rise, which in turn increases the burden for corporate self-protection, seriously jeopardizing corporate confidence in protecting trade secrets and compromising product research and innovation.

Solutions are badly needed for this legislative and judicial impedance. In 2011, by way of judicial interpretation, the Supreme People’s Court accomplished its year-long investigation concerning trade secrets. Hopefully, the State Administration for Industry & Commerce will also issue Strategies for Administrative Protection of Trade Secrets. Does this mean that the trade secret protection system should expect an opportunity for change? Will the existing problems all be solved? We are hoping for the result!

(Translated by Snow Li)