Journal of Intellectual Property (J Intellect Property; JIP)

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pISSN 1975-5945
eISSN 2733-8487
Research Article

Burden and Standard of Proof in Trade Secret Misappropriation Litigation in China: Second-Instance Judgment in the “Bell-Type Furnace Lifting Device” Trade Secret Infringement Case (2022, Supreme People’s Court Civil Final No. 719)

Spokesperson, Ministry of Intellectual Property; Ph.D. Student, Department of Law, Hannam University, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to Dae Soon Jung, E-mail: ddaesoon@korea.kr

Volume 21, Number 1, Pages 39-70, March 2026.
Journal of Intellectual Property 2026;21(1):39-70. https://doi.org/10.34122/jip.2026.21.1.39
Received on November 05, 2025, Revised on November 09, 2025, Accepted on March 06, 2026, Published on March 30, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 Korea Institute of Intellectual Property.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Abstract

In a trade secret infringement action, the plaintiff, who seeks to claim damages from the defendant, bears the burden of proof. However, in such cases, the majority of the evidence is within the defendant’s control. Consequently, for the plaintiff to obtain the necessary evidence is often challenging, which leads to an ineffective response to a trade secret infringement lawsuit. Moreover, as in other civil litigation, to persuade the judge subjectively that the plaintiff’s trade secret has been infringed, they must substantiate the elements of the claim with a high degree of likelihood (i.e., over 80% certainty). This situation places a significant burden of proof on the plaintiff. By contrast, China has adopted a distinct approach to the burden of proof and the evidentiary standard in trade secret infringement lawsuits compared to general civil actions, thereby facilitating relieving the plaintiff’s burden of proof. Notably, the 2019 amendment to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law explicitly codified the plaintiff’s burden of proof in trade secret infringement cases, and considerably lowered both the burden and standard of proof required. Accordingly, to consider the possibility of lowering the standard of proof in trade secret infringement lawsuits in Korea from “highly probable” (over 80% certainty) to “preponderance of the evidence” (i.e., over 50% certainty), in alignment with the approach taken in China, from a systemic perspective is essential. This study examines the relevant case law from China (the “Target Judgment”) concerning trade secret infringement lawsuits, analyzes the institutional framework surrounding the burden and standard of proof in Chinese trade secret litigation, and compares and contrasts the case law of Korea and China to identify both similarities and differences. This study ultimately aims to derive institutional implications that could alleviate the plaintiff’s burden of proof in trade secretlitigation.
Keywords

Burden of Proof, Standard of Proof, Trade Secrets, Trade Secret Misappropriation Litigation, Non-publicity, Anti-Unfair Competition Law, Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act

Notes

Conflicts of Interest

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Funding

The author received manuscript fees for this article from Korea Institute of Intellectual Property.

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