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No. 5 of the Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases Tried by Chinese Courts in 2020 Issued by the Supreme People's Court: Wuhan Atlantic Metallurgical Engineering & Technology Co., Ltd. v. Song Zuxing (case of corporate surplus distribution dispute) — Overlapping criminal and civil cases involving employees in breach of confidentiality obligation
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最高人民法院发布2020年中国法院10大知识产权案件之五：武汉大西洋连铸设备工程有限责任公司与宋祖兴公司盈余分配纠纷案——员工违反保密义务刑民交叉案
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【法宝引证码】
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| No. 5 of the Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases Tried by Chinese Courts in 2020 Issued by the Supreme People's Court: Wuhan Atlantic Metallurgical Engineering & Technology Co., Ltd. v. Song Zuxing (case of corporate surplus distribution dispute) — | | 最高人民法院发布2020年中国法院10大知识产权案件之五：武汉大西洋连铸设备工程有限责任公司与宋祖兴公司盈余分配纠纷案 |
| Overlapping criminal and civil cases involving employees in breach of confidentiality obligation | | ——员工违反保密义务刑民交叉案 |
| (Civil Judgment No. 135 [2019], Retrial, Civil, SPC of the Supreme People's Court) | | 最高人民法院（2019）最高法民再135号民事判决书 |
| [Case Summary] Song Zuxing and Wuhan Atlantic Metallurgical Engineering & Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Atlantic Company") signed a Post-departure Obligation Agreement, agreeing on a competing business restriction and confidentiality obligation. Atlantic Company believed that Song Zuxing provided registered capital and technical support to Wuhan Hengruigu Metallurgical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Hengruigu Company"), and disclosed the trade secret of Atlantic Company in breach of agreement, and thus sued in the court, claiming a judgment that Song Zuxing should have corresponding civil legal liability. According to investigation, the Jiang'an District People's Court of Wuhan City determined that Hengruigu Company committed the crime of trade secret infringement in the criminal proceedings against Hengruigu Company and its legal representative Yang Yuxiang (a former employee of Atlantic Company) on suspicion of infringing the trade secret of Atlantic Company. Both the courts of first and second instance in this case held that in the criminal case in which the People's Procuratorate of Jiang'an District, Wuhan City charged Hengruigu Company and Yang Yuxiang on suspicion of trade secret infringement, the public security authority closed its investigation and delivered investigation results irrelevant to Song Zuxing and that there was no found fact that Song Zuxing infringed the trade secret of Atlantic Company. According to the results of investigation of the criminal case, the suspected infringement of the trade secret by Hengruigu Company and Yang Yuxiang was irrelevant to Song Zuxing, and thus the claim of Atlantic Company was dismissed. Atlantic Company was dissatisfied, and applied to the Supreme People's Court for retrial. The Supreme People's Court held that as the procuratorial authority did not initiated a public prosecution against Song Zuxing, the criminal judgment contained no determination as to whether Song Zuxing participated in the commission of criminal acts. The failure to examine and determine the relationship between Song Zuxing and Hengruigu Company in the criminal proceedings did not constitute the fact found for the civil proceedings in this case, nor should Song Zuxing be determined directly on that basis to be irrelevant to Hengruigu Company. In this case, the evidence of record was sufficient to determine that Song Zuxing was the actual capital contributor of Hengruigu Company and that he formed Hengruigu Company, which was in a relationship of business competition with Atlantic Company, by covert means within two years after departure, in breach of agreement. The Supreme People's Court then directly retried this case, and entered a judgment upon retrial, setting aside the first and second-instance judgments, upholding the claims of Atlantic Company. | | 【案情摘要】宋祖兴与武汉大西洋连铸设备工程有限责任公司（以下简称大西洋公司）签订《离职后义务协议》，约定竞业限制及保密义务。大西洋公司认为，宋祖兴向案外人武汉恒瑞谷冶金科技有限公司（以下简称恒瑞谷公司）提供注册资金和技术支持，并披露了大西洋公司的商业秘密，违反了协议约定，遂诉至法院，请求判令宋祖兴承担相应的民事法律责任。经查，武汉市江岸区人民法院已在恒瑞谷公司及其法定代表人杨玉祥（大西洋公司的前员工）涉嫌损害大西洋公司商业秘密的刑事诉讼程序中，认定恒瑞谷公司构成侵犯商业秘密罪。本案一审、二审法院均认为，武汉市江岸区人民检察院指控恒瑞谷公司及杨玉祥涉嫌侵犯商业秘密罪刑事案，经公安机关侦查终结，侦查结果不涉及宋祖兴，亦无宋祖兴侵犯大西洋公司商业秘密的事实认定。根据刑事案件的侦查结果，恒瑞谷公司及杨玉祥涉嫌侵犯商业秘密的行为与宋祖兴无关，故驳回大西洋公司的诉讼请求。大西洋公司不服，向最高人民法院申请再审。最高人民法院认为，检察机关并未对宋祖兴提起公诉，故刑事判决不涉及宋祖兴是否参与实施犯罪行为的认定。因此，在刑事诉讼程序未对宋祖兴与恒瑞谷公司的关系进行审查与认定的情况下，不构成对本案民事诉讼程序的预决事实，也不应直接据此认定宋祖兴与恒瑞谷公司无关。本案中，根据在案证据，可以认定宋祖兴是恒瑞谷公司的实际出资人，其在离职后两年内以隐蔽手段隐名组建了与大西洋公司具有同行业竞争关系的恒瑞谷公司，违反了协议约定。最高人民法院遂提审本案，并再审改判撤销一、二审判决，支持了大西洋公司的诉讼请求。 |
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