Meaning
A statutory condition under Chinese competition law requires that technical or commercial information cannot be readily known or obtained through public channels by practitioners in the relevant field. The standard of 不为公众所知悉 forms the legal threshold of secrecy necessary to establish a trade secret under Article 9 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People’s Republic of China. Information fails this test if it is disclosed in published patents, described in academic journals, demonstrated at commercial trade fairs or easily derived through common technical knowledge.
Rights holders must prove that their proprietary data is not accessible to competitors without unauthorized effort or illegal acquisition.
Technical Threshold
Proprietary technical solutions must possess distinctiveness that excludes common industry practice and general technical knowledge.
Evidentiary Proof
Parties demonstrate compliance with the secrecy requirement by submitting search reports from certified patent search agencies and judicial appraisal institutions. Courts examine whether the specific technical assembly or operational workflow can be deduced through simple observation or lawful reverse engineering of commercially available products. If a product design can be analyzed and replicated within a short timeframe without specialized tools, judges deem the technology publicly known and reject trade secret claims.
When information is shared with supply chain partners or contract manufacturers under non-disclosure obligations, the non-public status is legally preserved.
Statutory Limit
Proving non-public status does not automatically guarantee legal protection if the rights holder neglected to take corresponding security measures. Even where technical information is completely unknown to competitors, failure to institute physical or digital access restrictions removes statutory trade secret protections. The condition of 不为公众所知悉 operates as a necessary prerequisite, but legal remedies require the simultaneous presence of commercial value and reasonable confidentiality precautions.
