(Promulgated by Decree No. 126 of the State Administration for Market Regulation on February 24, 2026,
and effective as of June 1, 2026)
and effective as of June 1, 2026)
Article 1 For the purposes of strengthening the protection of trade secrets and safeguarding the market order of fair competition, these Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Anti-Unfair Competition Law).
Article 2 Business operators shall abide by the principles of voluntariness, equality, fairness and good faith when acquiring, disclosing, using or permitting others to use trade secrets, comply with laws, regulations, rules and business ethics, and participate in market competition in a fair manner.
For the purposes of these Regulations, a business operator means a natural person, legal person or unincorporated organization engaged in the production and operation of commodities or the provision of services (commodities as mentioned hereinafter include services).
Article 3 The State Administration for Market Regulation is responsible for organizing and guiding the administrative protection of trade secrets nationwide.
Local market supervision and administration departments at or above the county level are responsible for the administrative protection of trade secrets within their respective administrative regions.
Cases involving technical secrets shall generally be under the jurisdiction of market supervision and administration departments at or above the level of a city divided into districts. Upon the approval of the State Administration for Market Regulation based on work needs, such cases may also be under the jurisdiction of county-level market supervision and administration departments with corresponding law enforcement capabilities.
Article 4 Market supervision and administration departments shall guide business operators to establish and improve trade secret protection systems, strengthen their awareness and capabilities of trade secret protection, and promote the overall improvement of the level of trade secret protection by conducting publicity and interpretation, organizing special training and other means.
Business operators are encouraged to establish and improve trade secret protection and management systems, and in light of their own industrial characteristics, technical requirements, competitive advantages and other factors, actively take effective measures to strengthen the internal control and compliance management of confidential elements, and prevent and stop acts of infringing trade secrets. Business operators are encouraged to innovate forms of trade secret protection and strengthen trade secret protection through certification, evidence preservation and other means.
Industry organizations shall strengthen industry self-discipline, and guide and regulate the business operators in their respective industries to compete in accordance with the law and safeguard the market competition order by formulating trade secret protection norms and compliance guidelines for the industry.
Article 5 For the purposes of these Regulations, a trade secret means technical information, business information and other commercial information that is not known to the public, has commercial value, and for which the right holder has taken corresponding confidentiality measures.
Technical information referred to in the first paragraph includes information related to technology such as structures, raw materials, formulas, materials, samples, styles, processes, methods, data, algorithms, computer programs and codes.
Business information referred to in the first paragraph includes information related to business activities such as ideas, management, sales, finance, plans, samples, customer information and data. Among them, customer information includes the customer's name, address, contact information, as well as transaction habits, intentions, content and other information.
Article 6 For the purposes of these Regulations, "not known to the public" means that at the time the alleged act of infringing a trade secret occurs, the relevant commercial information is not generally known to or easily accessible by the relevant persons in the field to which it belongs.
The following circumstances shall be deemed as the relevant commercial information being known to the public:
(1) The information is common knowledge or an industry practice in the field to which it belongs;
(2) The information only involves the size, structure, materials, simple combination of components and other contents of a product, which can be directly obtained by relevant persons in the field by observing the marketed product;
(3) The information has been publicly disclosed in published materials or other media;
(4) The information has been made public through public seminars, exhibitions and other means;
(5) The information is accessible to relevant persons in the field from other public channels.
Where new information is formed by sorting out, improving and processing the relevant commercial information known to the public, and meets the provisions of the first paragraph, it shall be deemed as not being known to the public.
Article 7 For the purposes of these Regulations, "having commercial value" means that the commercial information has actual or potential value and can bring the right holder commercial interests or competitive advantages such as asset appreciation, increase in operating income or profits, growth in the number of users, reduction in costs and expenses, shortening of R&D time, increase in business opportunities, and improvement of business reputation or commodity reputation.
Phased achievements formed in production and business activities or failed experimental data, technical schemes and the like that meet the provisions of the first paragraph shall be deemed as having commercial value.
Article 8 For the purposes of these Regulations, a right holder means the owner of a trade secret, as well as the licensee and authorized person of the trade secret who have obtained the license and authorization of the trade secret owner.
Article 9 For the purposes of these Regulations, "the right holder has taken corresponding confidentiality measures" means that the right holder has taken reasonable confidentiality measures commensurate with factors such as the nature of the trade secret and its carrier, and the commercial value of the trade secret to prevent the disclosure of the trade secret.
The following circumstances shall be deemed as the right holder having taken corresponding confidentiality measures:
(1) Signing a confidentiality agreement or stipulating confidentiality obligations in a contract;
(2) Putting forward confidentiality requirements to employees, former employees, suppliers, customers, visitors and others who can access and obtain the trade secret by formulating rules and regulations, conducting training, issuing written notices and other means;
(3) Prohibiting or restricting access to confidential production and business premises such as factories, workshops, laboratories and offices, or conducting differentiated management of such premises;
(4) Adopting technical confidentiality measures such as hierarchical authority, data desensitization and operation log keeping for scenarios such as remote work and cross-border collaboration;
(5) Conducting differentiated management of trade secrets and their carriers by means of marking, classification, isolation, encryption, sealing up, restricting the scope of persons who can access or obtain the trade secrets and their carriers, etc.;
(6) Taking measures such as prohibiting or restricting the use, access, storage and reproduction of computer equipment, network equipment, storage equipment and other devices that can access and obtain the trade secret;
(7) Requiring resigned employees to register, return, erase and destroy the trade secrets and their carriers that they have accessed and obtained, and continue to bear confidentiality obligations;
(8) Taking other reasonable confidentiality measures.
Article 10 Business operators shall not acquire the trade secrets of a right holder by theft, bribery, fraud, coercion, electronic intrusion or other improper means.
The following circumstances shall be deemed as improper means referred to in these Regulations:
(1) Without authorization or beyond the scope of authorization, accessing, possessing or copying documents, articles, materials, raw materials and other carriers under the control of the right holder that contain trade secrets or from which trade secrets can be deduced;
(2) Bribing, coercing or deceiving employees, former employees of the right holder or other entities or individuals to acquire trade secrets for them by providing property or other property interests, personal threats and other means;
(3) Without authorization or beyond the scope of authorization, accessing the digital office systems, servers, mailboxes, cloud disks, application accounts and the like of the right holder, or acquiring trade secrets by technical means such as setting malicious programs and exploiting vulnerabilities;
(4) Without authorization, beyond the scope of authorization or after the expiration of the authorization period, downloading or transmitting trade secrets to email boxes, cloud disks and other network storage spaces or electronic devices not under the control of the right holder;
(5) Other improper means of acquiring the trade secrets of the right holder.
Article 11 Business operators shall not disclose, use or permit others to use the trade secrets of a right holder acquired by improper means.
For the purposes of these Regulations, "disclose" means leaking the trade secret to a third party other than the right holder, or making the trade secret public so that it is generally known to or easily accessible by the relevant public.
For the purposes of these Regulations, "use" means directly using the trade secret, or using the trade secret after modification and improvement, or adjusting and improving the relevant production and business activities in accordance with the trade secret.
Article 12 Business operators shall not disclose, use or permit others to use the trade secrets they are in possession of in violation of confidentiality obligations or the right holder's requirements for keeping trade secrets confidential.
Confidentiality obligations or the right holder's requirements for keeping trade secrets confidential generally include the following circumstances:
(1) Stipulating the obligation to keep trade secrets confidential in contracts such as labor contracts, confidentiality contracts and sales contracts;
(2) Without contractual stipulations, bearing the obligation to keep trade secrets confidential in accordance with the principle of good faith based on the nature, purpose of the contract, transaction practices and business ethics;
(3) The right holder putting forward confidentiality requirements to the relevant subjects who know the trade secret, including but not limited to subjects who know the trade secret through contractual relations and those who know the trade secret through participating in R&D, production, inspection, certification and other activities;
(4) Without contractual stipulations, the right holder clearly putting forward requirements for keeping trade secrets confidential to employees, former employees, partners and others through rules and regulations or reasonable confidentiality measures;
(5) Other circumstances involving bearing confidentiality obligations or the right holder putting forward requirements for keeping trade secrets confidential.
Article 13 Business operators shall not instigate, induce or assist others to acquire, disclose, use or permit others to use the trade secrets of a right holder in violation of confidentiality obligations or the right holder's requirements for keeping trade secrets confidential.
The following circumstances shall be deemed as acts of instigating, inducing or assisting others to infringe trade secrets:
(1) Encouraging or instigating others to infringe trade secrets in an express or implied manner;
(2) Inducing others to infringe trade secrets by material rewards or non-material rewards such as position promises in an express or implied manner;
(3) Knowingly or having reason to know that others are infringing trade secrets, still providing them with financial, technical, equipment and other convenient conditions;
(4) Other acts of instigating, inducing or assisting others to infringe trade secrets.
Article 14 Where natural persons, legal persons or unincorporated organizations other than business operators commit the illegal acts prescribed in Articles 10 to 13 of these Regulations, their acts shall be deemed as infringement of trade secrets.
Where a third party, knowing or having reason to know that an employee, former employee, partner of the trade secret right holder or other entity or individual has committed the illegal acts prescribed in Articles 10 to 13 of these Regulations, still acquires, discloses, uses or permits others to use the trade secret, such act shall be deemed as infringement of trade secrets.
In judging whether a third party knows or has reason to know, factors such as the degree of confidentiality of the relevant commercial information, the rationality of the channel and method of acquisition, the transaction price, the relationship between the third party and the trade secret right holder, and industry practices shall be comprehensively considered.
Article 15 The following acts are generally not deemed as acts of infringing trade secrets:
(1) Independent discovery or independent research and development;
(2) Obtaining the relevant technical information of a product by disassembling, mapping, analyzing and other means on the product obtained from public channels;
(3) A former employee of a trade secret right holder carrying out work by using general knowledge, skills and industry experience accumulated in work, or industry information accessible through public channels;
(4) Disclosing trade secrets to state organs, statutory institutions with administrative functions and their staff in accordance with the law for the needs of exposing illegal and criminal acts, safeguarding national security and social public interests;
(5) Other acts that are not deemed as infringement of trade secrets.
Article 16 All organizations and individuals are encouraged, supported and protected to exercise social supervision over acts of infringing trade secrets. Market supervision and administration departments shall keep confidential the information of informants and organizations and individuals that assist in investigating and dealing with acts of infringing trade secrets.
Article 17 A right holder who believes that its trade secret has been infringed may report the matter to the market supervision and administration department.
When filing a report, the right holder shall provide preliminary evidence materials proving that its commercial information constitutes a trade secret as well as specific clues of the alleged infringement of the trade secret, and be responsible for the authenticity of the content of the report. The market supervision and administration department may require the informant to supplement the report materials based on work needs.
No organization or individual may fabricate facts of trade secret infringement to frame others or engage in extortion, nor may it abuse the right to report to disrupt the market competition order and the market supervision and administration order.
Article 18 Preliminary evidence materials proving that the commercial information of a right holder constitutes a trade secret generally include the following contents:
(1) The formation process and formation time of the commercial information;
(2) The commercial information is not known to the public or does not fall under the circumstances listed in the second paragraph of Article 6 of these Regulations;
(3) The commercial value of the commercial information;
(4) The confidentiality measures taken by the right holder for the commercial information;
(5) Other evidence materials that can prove that the commercial information of the right holder constitutes a trade secret.
The following clues may generally serve as specific clues of the alleged infringement of a trade secret:
(1) Clues indicating that the person alleged to have infringed the trade secret (hereinafter referred to as the infringer) has the channel or opportunity to acquire the trade secret;
(2) Clues indicating that the confidentiality measures for the trade secret have been damaged by the alleged infringer by improper means;
(3) Clues indicating that the trade secret has actually been acquired by the alleged infringer;
(4) Clues indicating that the trade secret has been disclosed or used by the alleged infringer or is at risk of being disclosed or used;
(5) Other clues indicating that the trade secret has been infringed by the alleged infringer.
Article 19 Upon receiving the report clues, the market supervision and administration department shall conduct verification in accordance with the law and decide whether to initiate proceedings.
Where, upon verification, all of the following conditions are met, the department shall initiate proceedings:
(1) There is preliminary evidence proving the existence of an act of infringing a trade secret, and an administrative penalty shall be imposed in accordance with the law;
(2) The case is under the jurisdiction of the department;
(3) The case is within the statutory time limit for imposing an administrative penalty.
Article 20 The alleged infringer, interested parties and other relevant entities and individuals shall truthfully provide relevant materials or information to the market supervision and administration department.
Where there is evidence proving that the information used by the alleged infringer is substantially the same as the trade secret claimed by the right holder, and the alleged infringer has the conditions to acquire the trade secret, the market supervision and administration department may determine that the alleged infringer has committed an act of infringing the trade secret, unless there is evidence proving that the information used by the alleged infringer is legally acquired or used.
Article 21 Market supervision and administration departments and their staff shall have the obligation to keep confidential the trade secrets learned in the investigation process in accordance with the law, and shall not illegally disclose, use or permit others to use the trade secrets of the right holder.
When market supervision and administration departments publicly announce administrative penalty decisions in accordance with the law, they shall not disclose the contents involving trade secrets.
Article 22 A right holder or an alleged infringer may entrust a qualified appraisal institution to appraise specialized matters such as whether the information of the right holder is known to the public and whether the information used by the alleged infringer is substantially the same as the information of the right holder, or entrust a person with specialized knowledge to issue a professional opinion on the above matters, and submit the relevant appraisal results or professional opinions to the market supervision and administration department.
Article 23 In investigating an alleged act of infringing a trade secret, the market supervision and administration department may take the following measures:
(1) Entering the business premises where the alleged act of infringing a trade secret occurs for inspection;
(2) Questioning the investigated alleged infringer, interested parties and other relevant entities and individuals, and requiring them to explain the relevant circumstances or provide other materials related to the investigated act;
(3) Inquiring about and copying agreements, account books, documents, records, business correspondence and other materials related to the alleged act of infringing a trade secret;
(4) Sealing up or detaining property related to the alleged act of infringing a trade secret;
(5) Inquiring about the bank accounts of the business operator involved in the alleged act of infringing a trade secret.
To take the measures prescribed in the first paragraph, a written report shall be submitted to the principal person in charge of the market supervision and administration department, and the measures shall be approved thereby. To take the measures prescribed in Items (4) and (5) of the first paragraph, a written report shall be submitted to the principal person in charge of the market supervision and administration department at or above the level of a city divided into districts, and the measures shall be approved thereby.
When market supervision and administration departments and their staff conduct investigations or request assistance in investigations in accordance with the law, they shall avoid or minimize the impact on the normal production and business activities of business operators.
Article 24 Anyone who infringes a trade secret in violation of these Regulations shall be ordered to stop the illegal act, have the illegal gains confiscated, and be imposed a fine of not less than 100,000 yuan but not more than 1,000,000 yuan by the market supervision and administration department at or above the county level in accordance with the provisions of Article 26 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law; if the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than 1,000,000 yuan but not more than 5,000,000 yuan shall be imposed.
Article 25 When ordering the cessation of an illegal act in accordance with the provisions of Article 26 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, the period for ordering the cessation of the illegal act shall generally last until the relevant commercial information no longer constitutes a trade secret.
Ordering the cessation of an illegal act generally includes:
(1) Ordering the infringer to stop using the trade secret of the right holder, unless the right holder consents;
(2) Ordering the infringer to return the carrier of the trade secret to the right holder or destroy it;
(3) Ordering the infringer to destroy the infringing products or intermediate products containing the trade secret, unless the right holder consents to other disposal methods such as purchase and sale;
(4) Ordering the infringer to erase the trade secret of the right holder that it has acquired;
(5) Other acts of ordering the cessation of the infringement of the trade secret of the right holder.
Article 26 The following circumstances shall be deemed as "serious circumstances" referred to in Article 26 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law:
(1) Causing a relatively large amount of direct losses to the right holder;
(2) Causing a major adverse impact on the production and business activities of the right holder;
(3) Endangering national interests or social public interests;
(4) Committing an act of infringing a trade secret again within two years after being subject to an administrative penalty for infringing a trade secret;
(5) Other circumstances of serious nature.
Article 27 Anyone who violates these Regulations and the act is suspected of a crime shall be transferred to the judicial organ in accordance with the law for criminal liability.
Article 28 Where the commercial information referred to in these Regulations constitutes a state secret, it shall be protected in accordance with the provisions of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Guarding State Secrets.
Article 29 Where an act of infringing a trade secret is committed outside the territory of the People's Republic of China, which disrupts the market competition order within the territory and damages the legitimate rights and interests of business operators within the territory, it shall be dealt with in accordance with the Anti-Unfair Competition Law and other relevant laws.
Article 30 Where other departments are stipulated by laws and administrative regulations to supervise and inspect acts of infringing trade secrets, such provisions shall be followed.
Article 31 These Regulations shall come into force on June 1, 2026. The Provisions on Prohibiting Acts of Infringing Trade Secrets promulgated by Decree No. 41 of the former State Administration for Industry and Commerce on November 23, 1995 shall be abolished at the same time.