Authored by Mr. He Jing (hejing@anjielaw.com) and Ms. Dong Xue (dongxue@anjielaw.com) at Anjie Law Firm
The Draft Amendment to Anti-Unfair Competition Law (AUCL) has long been awaited and discussion on its proposed revisions is now heating up. Drafted by the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and released by State Council for public opinion until March 25 2016, this Draft Amendment has substantially revised 30 of the 33 provisions and touched on a wide range of issues, including commercial bribery, trade dress, trade secrets, antitrust, administrative enforcement and compensation thresholds.
AUCL has always been a crucial weapon for intellectual property rights owners to stop infringement and freeriding activities, and this Draft Amendment would also have material impact on IP enforcement. Historically, trade secret cases are among the most difficult battles to win, due to too high criminal thresholds, inconvenient transfer from administrative to criminal proceedings and insufficient safeguard measures for trade secrets disclosed in enforcement proceedings among various other reasons.