商业秘密保护中默示保密义务研究

Research on the Implied Confidentiality Obligation in Trade Secret Protection

在当前商业秘密的传播环境中,默示保密义务的重要性日益凸显,其规范功能在于平衡商业秘密保护中的所有者利益和社会利益。实务中,默示保密义务适用存在泛化的趋势,原因包括认定方法不科学、商业道德内涵不确定和保密性要件依附于秘密性要件等。这使得适用者以封闭式思维看待商业秘密保护,客观上导致了对所有者利益的过度保护,并引致变相承认“不可避免披露”原则、提高商业道德的适用标准、“架空”商业秘密的保护规则、破坏商业秘密的财产性基础等后果。基于商业秘密保护中的利益平衡,默示保密义务适用范围的认定应以公平原则为指引;默示保密义务存在的认定,以公平告知为前提;默示保密义务的内容划定,以可预见性使用为标准。如此,可防止默示保密义务适用范围的不合理扩张。

In the context of the current dissemination environment for trade secrets,the importance of implied confidentiality obligations is increasingly prominent.The regulatory function lies in balancing the interests of trade secret owners and societal benefits in trade secret protection.In practice,there is a general trend towards the application of implied confidentiality obligations,driven by factors such as unscientific identification methods,uncertain ethical implications in business,and the dependency of confidentiality requirements on secrecy criteria.This makes the applicants view trade secret protection with a closed mindset,which tends to excessively favor the interests of owners,leading to consequences of indirect recognition of the principle of‘inevitable disclosure',higher standards for ethical business practices,circumvention of trade secret protection rules,and erosion of the proprietary foundation of trade secrets.Based on the balance of interests within trade secret protection,the determination of the scope of implied confidentiality obligations should be guided by the principle of fairness.The determination of the existence of implied confidentiality obligations should be based on the principle of fair notice,and the content of implied confidentiality obligations should prioritize foreseeable use standards.In this way,the unreasonable expansion of the scope of implied confidentiality obligations can be prevented.