Trade Secret Evidence in China

Identify the secret, freeze the evidence, then prove taking or use — in that order.

Courts expect a specific secret list, a measures chronology that pre-dates the leak, and traces of acquisition, disclosure or use. Preservation (notarial purchase, forensic image, platform timestamps) should start before demand letters educate the defendant. Burden-shifting rules can help once you show the secret, measures, and that the defendant had access plus a substantially identical product — but they do not replace a coherent file. WeChat, USB and git logs are ordinary exhibits if captured properly.

The classification screen

4 questions before you choose the route.

This page identifies the right question and evidence. It does not determine the legal outcome on a reader’s facts.

Can you write the secret on one page?

If you cannot specify it, you cannot prove it.

Identify

What must be frozen today?

Devices, accounts, listings, moulds, and the defendant’s public product.

Hold

What shows taking or use?

Logs, identical bugs, unique strings, customer overlap.

Link

Do you need notarial or forensic process?

High-value or disappearing electronic evidence usually yes.

Form

Working rule: Courts expect a specific secret list, a measures chronology that pre-dates the leak, and traces of acquisition, disclosure or use.

What changes the answer

The signal ledger.

These facts move the question beyond a label and into a product, money-flow and control analysis.

Signal

Ask the operating question

Why it changes the route

Secret defined after suing

Was the list written by litigators after the leak?

Tribunals distrust after-the-fact identification.

Only screenshots

Is the WeChat file a phone photo with no export?

Integrity and completeness will be attacked.

Identical product, no access proof

Can you show the defendant ever had the files?

Burden-shifting still needs an access story.

Prepare before you escalate

Bring a compact evidence docket—not a pitch deck.

Give a compliance team or counsel the operating facts that reveal the perimeter.

01Secret listItemised technical or business information claimed.

02Measures chronologyDated access, marking, NDA and exit proof.

03Taking tracesForensic, notarial, platform and witness evidence.

04ComparisonWhy the defendant’s product or list is not a coincidence.

Common confusions

Questions people ask before they build.

Short answers for orientation. The right result can change with the service model and current rules.

Do we have to disclose the secret to the court?

Usually yes in some form, often under confidentiality undertakings. A case you cannot particularise will fail. Plan a protective-order style request with counsel.

Is a notarial buy always required?

Not always, but for online listings and disappearing pages it is the standard way to fix evidence in China practice.

Primary authorities

Reviewed sources support orientation, not a fact-specific assessment.

National laws database (NPC)

Anti-Unfair Competition Law (gov.cn)

Supreme People’s Court