Is The List Of Customers A Trade Secret?

Xiao Li is a regional sales manager of an office supplies company. The two sides agreed in the labor contract that workers should keep the company's commercial secrets, whether they work or leave, and do not allow them to be leaked until the company has written authorization.

Xiao Li has worked in the company for nearly 4 years, accumulating a fixed number of customers, and maintaining stable and good relations with these customers.

Last year, Xiao Li resigned for personal reasons, got the company's approval and handled the handover procedure.

Six months later, sales clerks with Xiao Li in the same department found that some of the key customers who had been booking products at their company had not ordered for some time. She reflected this to the sales manager who worked for Xiao Li.

After a number of investigations, the company found that these customers had turned to the new company to buy products, and most of the "lost" customers were originally Xiaoli.

The company sent a lawyer's letter to Xiao Li, who asked Xiao Li to stop infringing upon the company's business secrets immediately, because he had violated the stipulation of the conservative commercial secrets between the two parties, otherwise he would bear all the consequences.

Xiao Li did not pay any attention to it.

A month later, the office supplies company applied.

Xiaoli took away the list of clients when he resigned, and leaked the cause of his business secrets, asking Xiao Li to compensate the company for the economic losses.

Xiao Li believes that these customers are once again visiting and developing the company after he comes to the new company. The list of customers is nothing more than a company name, contact method and so on. This can be found on the website, which is not a commercial secret.

The tenth provision of the anti unfair competition law stipulates that

It refers to the technical information and operational information that is not known to the public, can bring economic benefits to the obligee, and is practical and protected by the obligee.

Generally speaking, the scope of business secret includes two main categories: first, technical information, such as design, process, recipe, sample, etc.

The second is management information.

Management information covers a wide range of topics, including various reports, customers, partners' intentions, contracts, negotiation plans, meeting minutes and resolutions, business channels, sources of supply, sales channels, customer lists, product costs, paction prices and profit margins, sales strategies and programs, planning programs, etc., as well as information on financial management, such as financial accounts, statements, personnel files, wages, bonuses and welfare allocation programs, major personnel changes, personal information and so on.

To judge whether a message can become a business secret, the first condition is whether the information can be known to the public under normal conditions, such as general knowledge or general knowledge.

And so on can not become a trade secret.

At the same time, information that can be a trade secret should not be easily obtained. If the public can easily get the information through observing products or other proper channels, the information can not constitute a business secret.

The list of customers is a controversial issue in business secrets.

From the current legal requirements, not all customer lists are eligible for business secrets.

The list of customers in a trade secret is usually made up of the name, address, contact way, habits, intentions and contents of the customer.

If the customer name, contact method, company introduction and so on can be obtained from its website or other public channels, then it can not become the company's trade secret.

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