| Nanjing Intermediate People's Court Held that Jiangsu Cohen Environmental Protection Co., Ltd. and Others Infringed on JNG China¡¯s Trade Secrets, and Ruled that Jiangsu Cohen stopped the Infringement and Compensated JNG China 96 Million Yuan! |
On December 22, 2020, JNG China received a civil judgment from Nanjing Intermediate People's Court of Jiangsu Province ((2019) Su, 01, Civil, First Instance, Document Number 2893). The judgement held that Jiangsu Cohen Environmental Protection Co., Ltd., Anhui Keda Clean Energy Co., Ltd., Guangdong Keda Clean Energy Co., Ltd., and Liu A deliberately infringed on the know-how of JNG China, the plaintiff, causing huge economic losses to it, and that they should immediately stop infringing on the plaintiff's know-how, that is, not to use the same or substantially same technologies, namely, Ammonia Desulfurization and Particulate Control Technologies with Ultra-low Emission, as the plaintiff does in business activities, and that within ten days from the effective date of this judgment, the defendants should compensate the plaintiff for its economic losses of 95 million yuan and 1 million yuan, its reasonable expenses in the cause of trying to stop the infringement, totaling 96 million yuan, and that the defendants were jointly and severally liable and should jointly bear the case acceptance fee of 521,800 yuan.
Since 2016, Jiangsu Cohen Environmental Protection Co., Ltd. has recruited key personnel in JNG China’s technical and business departments by improper means such as the lure of benefits, and through these personnel, illegally acquired JNG China’s trade secrets; Guangdong Keda Clean Energy Co., Ltd. has integrated resources and provided personnel assistance for Jiangsu Cohen's large-scale infringements by acquiring Jiangsu Cohen, while enjoying the resulting benefits; Liu A has been the organizer and actual manipulator of these infringements. Jiangsu Cohen and Liu A used the stolen trade secrets to apply for patents to China National Intellectual Property Administration, resulting in the disclosure of JNG China’s trade secrets. The above acts have caused significant economic and reputational losses to JNG China.
On September 25, 2019, JNG China filed a civil lawsuit with Nanjing Intermediate People's Court regarding the dispute over infringement on trade secrets by Jiangsu Cohen Environmental Protection Co., Ltd., Anhui Keda Clean Energy Co., Ltd., Guangdong Keda Clean Energy Co., Ltd. and Liu A, and immediately received the notice of acceptance of the case. The case number was (2019) Su, 01, Civil, First Instance, Document Number 2893). The court then served the litigation materials including notices of acceptance, notices to produce evidence, and subpoenas. After filing the case on September 25, 2019, Nanjing Intermediate People's Court applied ordinary procedures in accordance with the law and assigned technical investigators to assist in finding out the technical facts of the case. It organized the exchange of evidence and cross-examination between the plaintiff and the defendants on January 9, 2020, August 10, 2020 and September 29, 2020. It held a closed session in accordance with the law on September 29, 2020 and delivered the judgment on December 15, 2020.
The court ruled that the defendants had used the plaintiff's trade secrets. The judgment went, “Jiangsu Cohen used ‘Ammonia Desulfurization and Particulate Control Technologies with Ultra-low Emission’ of the plaintiff in all projects it undertook. The defendants lured the plaintiff's employees, especially technical staff, to join them by improper means that violated recognized business ethics, such as the lure of benefits, and they instigated the plaintiff's employees to violate the duty of confidentiality and non-compete provisions, and disclosed as well as used the plaintiff's trade secrets by recruiting a large number of plaintiff's former technicians. Before 2016, Jiangsu Cohen, a defendant, mainly adopted limestone-gypsum desulfurization technologies in their business activities, and never used any ammonia desulfurization technologies. But at the end of 2016, it undertook a large number of ammonia desulfurization projects in a short period of time. In some of these projects, Jiangsu Cohen used the plaintiff's technical drawings without making a single change to them, copying even the mistakes on them. And in some other projects, Jiangsu Cohen made adaptive adjustments to the stolen drawings according to the project scale. ”
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