trade secrets

April 28th, 2026

The Protection of Trade Secrets in China: A Comprehensive Analysis of the New Legal Framework with Special Consideration of the 2026 Reform

The protection of trade secrets in China has undergone a fundamental modernization with the adoption of the Regulation on the Protection of Trade Secrets by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on February 24, 2026 . The Regulation, which enters into force on June 1, 2026, replacing the provisions from 1995, constitutes the most significant reform of Chinese trade secret protection in three decades. This article analyzes the central innovations of the reform – from the expanded definition of trade secrets, through the clarification of...

March 29th, 2018

Protecting your IP rights with the Chinese Anti-Unfair Competition Law (AUCL)

The definition of an unfair competition is given by the article 2 of the PCR Anti-Unfair Competition Law（反不正当竞争法). According to this article, an act of unfair competition is constituted when during production or distribution activities, a business operator disrupts the market competition order or infringes the legal rights and interests of other business operators or consumers.

Some unfair competition acts can be related to intellectual property such as the Article 6 which concerns the copy and imitation of brands and the Article 9 relating to the trade secrets. These articles...