Six methods of investigation and evidence collection

1, collect evidence by yourself or entrust a lawyer to investigate and collect evidence.

Of course, the enterprise itself knows the secrets of its free trade best, such as the secret points of the information it wants to protect, so it is understandable that the enterprise can obtain evidence at most. However, due to the high demand for evidence in trade secret cases, enterprises may not be able to better grasp the scope and methods of obtaining evidence, so enterprises can choose to hire professional lawyers to assist in obtaining evidence.

In view of the professionalism and complexity of trade secret cases, professional lawyers, especially those who are good at handling trade secret cases, often have rich legal knowledge and practical experience in handling cases, skilled litigation skills and the ability to investigate and collect evidence for enterprises to protect trade secrets.

Article 35 of China's Lawyers Law stipulates that lawyers can investigate and collect evidence by themselves, and can investigate the situation related to undertaking legal affairs with the lawyer's practice certificate and law firm certificate. This provision gives lawyers the right to investigate and collect evidence at different stages and provides convenient conditions for lawyers to investigate and collect evidence.

2, the notary public notary preservation.

Notarization and evidence collection is to record the process of obtaining evidence by the right holder with the credibility of the notary office, seal the obtained evidence in the notary office and submit it to the court as evidence in the lawsuit. With the deepening of Chinese citizens' understanding of notarization system, notarial certificates appear more and more in litigation. It is understood that notarization and evidence collection account for a large proportion of the main businesses currently undertaken by the notary department in China. Due to the special status of the court and the impossibility for the public security and industrial and commercial departments to invest huge energy and material resources in obtaining evidence in each case, the notary department actually played an important role in assisting in obtaining evidence.

3. Apply to the court for evidence preservation.

Article 74 of China's Civil Procedure Law stipulates that in the case that the evidence may be lost or difficult to obtain later, the litigant participants may apply to the people's court for evidence preservation. The application for pre-litigation evidence preservation shall be made in writing, usually before the expiration of the time limit for adducing evidence.

In the pre-litigation stage, when collecting the evidence of the infringer's infringement, the trade secret holder finds that the infringer is actively destroying or transferring the evidence, or the evidence may be lost due to its own characteristics, and may apply to the court for pre-litigation evidence preservation. After accepting the application, the people's court will make a ruling to grant execution and immediately execute it. But at the same time, the applicant should also pay the security fee and provide evidence clues according to the relevant provisions of the law.

4. Apply to the court for investigation and evidence collection.

Applying for court investigation and evidence collection for some special evidence materials, enterprises, individuals and other ordinary people can not obtain. Therefore, Article 17 of the Supreme People's Court's Provisions on Evidence in Civil Litigation stipulates that if one of the following conditions is met, the parties and their agents ad litem may apply to the people's court for investigation and evidence collection:

The evidence collected in the application investigation belongs to the archival materials kept by the relevant state departments and transferred by the people's court according to the requirements of its functions and powers;

Materials involving state secrets, commercial secrets and personal privacy; Other materials that the parties and their agents ad litem cannot collect by themselves due to objective reasons.

5. Apply to the administrative department for industry and commerce for investigation and evidence collection.

When a business secret holder discovers that a business secret has been infringed, he may apply to the administrative authorities for industry and commerce at all levels for investigation in accordance with the provisions of Several Provisions on Prohibiting Infringement of Business Secrets. The administrative department for industry and commerce has the right to seal up the infringing products in the process of investigation, and can consult and copy the contracts, account books and other relevant documents related to the case as needed; Questioning the parties and witnesses; Take measures, photos, videos and other ways to conduct on-site inspection. Documents, transcripts and objects obtained by the administrative department for industry and commerce according to law through the above acts are strong evidence to prove the infringer's infringement, which has high evidence effect in court. The right holder of trade secrets can decide whether to collect evidence in this way according to the specific circumstances when discovering the infringement.

6. Collect evidence through investigation by public security organs.

The public security organ is the legal organ for investigating cases in China, which has strong investigative power, advanced technical equipment and rich investigative experience, and the state gives it investigative power. Criminal cases of infringing business secrets are generally characterized by hidden criminal means and difficulties for victims to prove, so it is wise to choose public security organs to intervene. China's "Criminal Procedure Law" stipulates that the right holder of trade secrets may report the case to the public security organ when he discovers the fact of infringement. If the public security organ considers that it meets the conditions for filing a case for investigation, it shall file a case and use special investigation means to investigate and collect evidence.