Protecting confidentiality means protecting life, and protecting confidentiality means protecting development. How important is a technical secret to a company? In the experience of a chemical company, the answer to this question was concretized - "At that time, our project faced fierce international competition, and when the technical secrets were stolen, the project faced a 'life and death decision' of whether to continue or temporarily shelve. The larger the investment, the greater the loss. The judicial authorities promptly stopped and halted infringement in accordance with the law, and the technology secrets were not widely disseminated, giving the company great confidence to continue promoting the project. ”Although it has been several months since the completion of the case, Mr. Liu, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the President's Office of Shandong Weifang A Chemical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Company A"), still couldn't hide his excitement when he told reporters recently: "After the handling of this case, our company successfully put into operation the project involved, achieved world-class levels of continuous production and green technology, created nearly 300 million yuan in new sales revenue, and created more than 100 new jobs. Currently, we have applied for 14 invention patents for this project, including 2 PCT international patents, 4 authorized patents, and published 3 high-level papers, including 1 SCI indexed paper, forming a completely independent intellectual property right. ”What kind of technical secrets are so important? What changes have occurred in the company after experiencing this case? The reporter visited Company A located in Weifang Binhai Economic and Technological Development Zone to investigate. The company is a well-known chemical company established in 2005 and is a leading global manufacturer of pesticide products. The company invested over 400 million yuan to develop a pesticide product, and its technical information is a trade secret. In April 2022, Wen and others resigned from the company and copied the relevant information of the pesticide products developed by the company. Later, Wen joined a technology company and used the confidential information of Company A that he had kept privately, as well as the relevant technical confidential information obtained from an employee of Company A, Xu, through bribery and other means, for the transformation of a pesticide product project in a technology company. In September 2022, Company A reported the case to the public security organs. In June 2023, the public security organs transferred four individuals including a certain technology company and Wen to the Weifang Binhai Economic and Technological Development Zone Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as the "Binhai District Procuratorate") for examination and prosecution on suspicion of infringing on trade secrets. The court fully utilizes the mechanism of investigation supervision and cooperation, combined with the nature of the involved behavior, to guide the public security organs to shift the focus of investigation from business information to technical information, and solve the problem of difficulty in determining the amount of losses from business information. At the same time, it is proposed that for trade secrets obtained through improper means that have not been disclosed, used, or allowed to be used by others, the amount of losses can be determined based on the reasonable licensing fee for the trade secret, providing a clear direction for the handling of the case. At the same time, prosecutors from the Binhai District Procuratorate conducted self supplementary investigations, conducted on-site visits to understand, supplemented and retrieved confidential measures such as labor contracts, confidentiality agreements, lists of confidential positions, and document control procedures, and further improved the evidence system. Handling cases is not just about cracking down on crime, but also about helping power enterprises recover losses and stop losses. In response to this, the Binhai District Procuratorate has started with a criminal civilian integrated protection mechanism, promoting the protection of rights and the crackdown on crime simultaneously. The prosecutor shall promptly inform the right holder of their litigation rights and obligations, provide support for the right holder to file criminal incidental civil litigation, and actively help the infringed enterprise recover economic losses through criminal accountability, in order to achieve the dual legal effect of "punishing crime" and "remedying losses". In December 2023, the Binhai District Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against a certain technology company, Wen, and four others on suspicion of infringing on trade secrets, and Company A filed a criminal incidental civil lawsuit. After trial by the court, a certain technology company was fined 1 million yuan, and four people including Wen were also sentenced and fined. At the same time, a certain technology company and four people including Wen compensated Company A for a loss of 8.3685 million yuan. After the first instance verdict, some defendants appealed. In May of this year, the court made a criminal incidental civil ruling, rejecting the appeal and upholding the original verdict. After the case was handled, Company A put the involved project into operation steadily, resulting in a significant increase in sales revenue and employment opportunities. A total of 14 invention patents were applied for around the project, forming completely independent intellectual property rights. The longer-term benefit is that through handling this case, the procuratorial organs have helped the company establish a series of "confidentiality" mechanisms, while interpreting the law through the case, promoting the company to strengthen warning education and prevent "insiders" from stealing trade secrets. After the case was handled, the Binhai District Procuratorate promoted the establishment of a demonstration base for safeguarding enterprise rights and interests, helping enterprises establish confidence in the rule of law, building a "technical firewall" for enterprises with intellectual property and technological innovation capabilities, forming a virtuous cycle of "research and development protection industrialization" for the protection of technical secrets, further optimizing the legal business environment, and promoting the development of new quality productivity through judicial protection. (New Society)