*AI-generated translation, for reference only.

[Case Brief]

Ji [REDACTED] Parties filed a lawsuit with the court of first instance against the Wei [REDACTED] Party on the grounds of infringement of technical secrets, requesting a judgment ordering the Wei [REDACTED] Party to cease the infringement and compensate for economic losses as well as reasonable expenses incurred in stopping the infringing acts, totaling 2.1 billion yuan. After trial, the court of first instance held that Wei [REDACTED] Automobile Manufacturing Wenzhou Co., Ltd. had infringed the technical secrets contained in five sets of chassis component drawings of the Ji [REDACTED] Parties, and discretionarily ordered Wei [REDACTED] Automobile Manufacturing Wenzhou Co., Ltd. to compensate the Ji [REDACTED] Parties for economic losses and reasonable right protection expenses in the amount of 7 million yuan. Both the Ji [REDACTED] Parties and Wei [REDACTED] Automobile Manufacturing Wenzhou Co., Ltd. were dissatisfied and appealed to the Supreme People's Court.

In the second instance, the Supreme People's Court held that this case is one of infringement of technical secrets arising from organized and planned large-scale poaching of new energy vehicle technical personnel and technical resources by improper means. Through overall analysis and comprehensive judgment, the Wei [REDACTED] Party committed acts of obtaining all the involved technical secrets by improper means, illegally disclosing part of the involved technical secrets by applying for patents, and using all the involved technical secrets. In the second-instance judgment, on the basis of generally ordering the Wei [REDACTED] Party to immediately cease disclosing, using, or allowing others to use the involved technical secrets, the court further detailed and clarified the specific methods, content, and scope of cessation of infringement, including but not limited to: unless obtaining the consent of the Ji [REDACTED] Parties, the Wei [REDACTED] Party shall cease disclosing, using, or allowing others to use the involved technical secrets in any way, and shall not implement, license others to implement, assign, pledge, or otherwise dispose of the 12 involved patents; all drawings, digital models, and other technical materials containing the involved technical secrets shall be destroyed or handed over to the Ji [REDACTED] Parties; the judgment and the requirements therein concerning cessation of infringement shall be notified to the Wei [REDACTED] Party and all its employees, as well as affiliated companies and relevant component suppliers, by means of publishing announcements and internal company notices, and the relevant personnel and units shall be required to sign undertakings to maintain trade secrets and not to infringe, etc. Considering factors such as the Wei [REDACTED] Party's evident intent to infringe, the egregious circumstances of infringement, and the severity of the consequences of infringement, a 2x punitive damages was applied to the Wei [REDACTED] Party's profits from infringement from May 2019 to the first quarter of 2022, and the Wei [REDACTED] Party shall compensate the Ji [REDACTED] Parties for economic losses and reasonable expenses of approximately 640 million yuan. To ensure the performance of non-pecuniary obligations, the second-instance judgment further clarified that if the Wei [REDACTED] Party violates the non-pecuniary obligations such as cessation of infringement determined in the judgment, a late performance penalty shall be calculated and paid at 1 million yuan per day; if the Wei [REDACTED] Party disposes of the 12 patents without authorization, it shall pay 1 million yuan in a lump sum for each such patent, etc.

[Expert Committee Opinion]

This case represents the highest compensation awarded by the People's Courts for intellectual property infringement related to the same engineering project. The patent case was amended on second instance to award compensation of 120 million yuan, the highest amount awarded by the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court since its establishment. The technical trade secret case was amended on second instance to award compensation of 98 million yuan, representing another high compensation award for technical trade secret infringement by the Intellectual Property Court following the "Vanillin" case in 2021 which awarded 159 million yuan. By actively exploring the specific methods and scope of injunctive relief, the two cases effectively protected intellectual property rights. The judgments in these cases fully reflected the trial philosophy of strengthening judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the new era through robust protection, effective protection, and equal protection.