Research On Several Problems About Crimes Of Business Secret Infringement

Today in the 21 st century,as a result of fierce market competition and rapid economy development,the economic value of business secrets becomes more and more evident,which leads to the fact that the crimes caused by the thirst for business secrets are increasing dramatically.This causes damage to the owner of business secrets while seriously deteriorating the market atmosphere.For that reason,the appeal for providing criminal protection to business secrets is gathering momentum.The crime of infringing business secrets was added to the criminal law in 1997,yet there have always been controversies in academic world of criminal law about the definition of business secrets and the constitutive elements of business secret infringement crimes.This paper discusses related problems of business secret infringement crimes in 3 parts: Part 1 summarizes the legislation on business secret infringement crimes.There are 3 legislation modes for criminal protection in typical countries: decentralized mode,centralized mode and combined mode.After the amendment to criminal law in 1997,China adopted centralized mode to regulate business secret infringement crime as an individual crime and gave the definition of business secrets.Part 2,as the key part of this paper,assesses the criterion of how a business secret infringement crime is determined.The subjective aspect is determined only as deliberate.Obtaining business secret from its owner by stealing,luring by promise of gain,intimidation or by other improper means,and illegally disclosing,using or allowing others to use the business secrets held or obtained by him-or-herself,all fall in the scope of infringement tort.The legitimacy of reverse engineering,however,should be honored.The determination of confidentiality shall not be too strict,and there are many ways to determine serious loss in juridical practices,each has its own merits and demerits.Part 3 gives comments on legislation and its improvement on business secret infringement crimes,It can be added to the crime of business secrets and economic espionage,and set different punishments according to the harmfulness of the method of tort.