He took away nearly 10000 drawings in the first ca

The first case of infringing trade secrets: he took away nearly 10000 drawings

peiguoliang, a former senior engineer of Xi'an Heavy Machinery Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as Xi'an Heavy Machinery Research Institute), plagiarized nearly 10000 technical drawings of the original unit to the new unit MCC Continuous Casting Technology Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as MCC continuous casting company), causing heavy losses to Xi'an Heavy Machinery Research Institute. The case was called the "first case of infringement of trade secrets" with the largest amount of compensation in China by the media because of the first instance judgment that peiguoliang and MCC continuous casting company jointly compensated Xizhong Institute for economic losses of 17.82 million yuan

the Shaanxi Provincial Higher People's court recently made a final ruling on the case, the criminal part upheld the original sentence, and the job hopping Engineer peiguoliang was sentenced to 3 years. The civil compensation was settled, and the settlement result was not made public because both parties signed a confidentiality agreement (reported on October 19 this year)

Chen Ziqiang, deputy director of the party and Mass Work Department of the West Institute, said that the discovery of this infringement case was very difficult. In July, 2003, the technical personnel of Xi'an Heavy Industry Research Institute found that Xi'an Metallurgical manufacturing Co., Ltd. was using the drawings of Xi'an Heavy Industry Research Institute to process and manufacture slab caster equipment for others. After understanding, they learned that the two sets of equipment were slab casters of Sichuan Chuanwei steel plant and Shandong Taishan steel plant commissioned by MCC continuous casting company. After arduous investigation, it was found that these drawings were closely related to peiguoliang, the former employee, so they reported the case to the public security organ

peiguoliang, male, born in April 1961, is a master's degree candidate and senior engineer. He is an expert in continuous casting technology trained by Xi'an Heavy Industry Research Institute in 20 years. He has participated in many major research projects of the Institute and mastered many trade secrets in Slab Continuous Casting Major of the Institute. In August, 2002, attracted by the high salary of MCC continuous casting, peiguoliang left the office without authorization and took office in MCC continuous casting, and was hired as the deputy chief engineer of the company

the court found that in January 2000, Xizhong Institute and Liaoning Linggang company signed the main part of Linggang No. 2 slab caster project. It was put into operation in June, 2001. In October, 2001, peiguoliang, a senior engineer of the former Xizhong Institute, found the design drawings of this project when working, that is, copying the drawings into his own computer without authorization. In August, 2002, peiguoliang left Xizhong Institute and went to MCC continuous casting company. Subsequently, MCC continuous casting company signed contracts for the production of continuous casters with Shandong Taishan steel plant and Sichuan Chuanwei steel plant, with a total value of nearly 150million yuan. Peiguoliang served as the technical director of these two projects. When peiguoliang returned to Xi'an on the national day of that year, he took the electronic drawing designed by Xizhong Institute for Linggang No. 2 main project back to MCC continuous casting company in Wuhan. Using the drawing, the designers of the company completed the design of two projects in Sichuan and Shandong in a short time

Chen Ziqiang said that the above stolen drawings (electronic documents) were independently developed by Xizhong after more than 20 years of investment in a large amount of human and material resources on the basis of China's first set of million ton continuous casting equipment technology, and have been gradually improved and matured. They are the crystallization of decades of hard work of several generations of scientific and technological workers at Xizhong Institute

the enterprise embarked on the road of safeguarding its rights

since peiguoliang and others came to MCC continuous casting company, the company has successively used the technical data stolen by peiguoliang to make several sets of slab casters for several enterprises, with a total contract amount of more than 230million yuan, which has made MCC continuous casting company, which originally did not have the ability to design slab casters, win the bid repeatedly, causing Xizhong to lose its due market share and suffer huge economic losses

the case was filed and investigated by Xi'an Public Security Bureau, and the relevant drawings were transferred to the Huake intellectual property judicial appraisal center of the society of science and Technology Law of China. The appraisal conclusion is that the drawings of slab casters designed by MCC continuous casting company for Sichuan Chuanwei and Shandong Taishan are not fundamentally different from the drawings designed by Xi'an Heavy Industry Research Institute from the perspective of assembly drawings and the structural functions of parts. According to the identification of Xi'an Jiaotong University intellectual property judicial appraisal institute, the technology of Linggang No. 2 slab caster of Xi'an Heavy Industry Research Institute is unknown to the public and meets the legal technical conditions for technical secrets in trade secrets. The economic loss caused by peiguoliang's criminal act to Xi'an Heavy Industry Research Institute is at least 17.82 million yuan

Xi'an Intermediate People's court held that through long-term efforts, Xi'an Heavy Industry Research Institute has formed a unique design technology in slab continuous casting technology. Its Linggang No. 2 slab caster technology has technical information that is not publicly available and not known to the public, and the technical information can bring economic benefits to the obligee. Xi'an heavy industry research institute has taken confidentiality measures for this technology, and signed a labor contract with the employees of the unit, agreeing on confidentiality obligations, It is a trade secret. Peiguoliang took advantage of his work to steal the business secrets of the unit and provide them to others for use. The consequences were particularly serious, and his behavior constituted the crime of infringing business secrets. MCC continuous casting company, without legally obtaining the trade secret of Xi'an Heavy Industry Research Institute, makes extensive use of the secret and signs contracts with other enterprises. It is the direct person causing economic losses to Xi'an Heavy Industry Research Institute, and it is also the direct beneficiary of infringement. It should bear the civil responsibility of compensation for losses

highlight the determination of judicial protection of intellectual property rights

after the first instance judgment, peiguoliang, Xi'an Heavy Machinery Research Institute and Wuhan MCC continuous casting company all mentioned that today we Jinan new era Gold Testing Instrument Co., Ltd. will explain in detail the operating procedures of the experimental machine and the working conditions of the equipment for wire rod. Subsequently, on the part of civil compensation, Xizhong Institute reached a mediation agreement with Wuhan MCC continuous casting company and peiguoliang

in terms of the criminal part of the case, the Shaanxi Provincial Higher People's court held that peiguoliang, as a senior engineer of the former Xizhong Institute, knew that the technical design drawings of the main equipment of the slab caster of the Institute were trade secrets, but still took advantage of the convenience of his work to privately copy and take possession of it, and then handed over the data to MCC continuous casting company for use, and his behavior caused particularly serious consequences to Xizhong Institute, It has constituted the crime of infringing trade secrets. The original trial decided that the crime was accurate, the sentence was appropriate, and the trial procedure was legal. The appeal was rejected and the original sentence was upheld

it is understood that when handling the case, Xi'an Public Security Bureau has repeatedly organized technicians of Xi'an Institute to identify the evidence they collected. Through identification, it was found that when peiguoliang changed jobs, the number of technical materials and important technical achievements he took away far exceeded his initial judgment. MCC continuous casting has also applied these technical materials and achievements in their commercial activities for many times, making huge profits

the person concerned said that such a case is also a major difficulty. There are very few cases of large-scale and flagrant infringement of others' trade secrets. The number of drawings, the wide scope of use, the large amount of money involved, and the huge losses caused to the injured units are unique in China

Xizhong said in an interview that it is very difficult to protect the rights of trade secret infringement cases, and it is very difficult to find infringement. In addition, due to the professional knowledge involved, it is very difficult for the police to investigate and obtain evidence. This case has lasted three years since it was filed, and its difficulty is evident from this

Chen Xinyi, vice president of Xi'an Intermediate People's court, said that with the rise of the knowledge economy, intellectual property protection will become the focus of social attention. This case has a great impact. The judgment on this case fully shows the determination of the judicial organs to pay attention to the use of criminal means and strengthen the judicial protection of intellectual property rights. (end)