XI'AN: Law and economic development experts believe that the settlement of China's largest commercial secrets infringement lawsuit, in Xi'an, capital of northwest Shaanxi Province, will set a good legal precedent for solving similar cases.

"The final verdict in the case will help fight against those who unscrupulously steal business secrets and improve the market order by promoting fair competition," Zhang Xue'an, an intellectual property law expert and member of a Xi'an Municipal Intermediate People's Court expert committee, told China Daily yesterday.

The ruling will also help protect intellectual property rights, the expert added.

"It also advised enterprises to take more effective measures to better protect their business secrets and make full use of the legal system to maintain a healthy market order," said Zhang Baotong, an expert on economic development and director of the Shaanxi Provincial Economic Development Research Institute.

In its final ruling over the weekend, the Shaanxi Provincial Higher People's Court sentenced Pei Guoliang, a senior engineer who divulged his former unit's commercial secrets, to a three-year imprisonment, according to court sources.

The court determined that Pei, a former senior engineer working in the Xi'an Research Institute of Heavy Machinery, copied important classified design and drawing documents for a machine created by the institute in October, 2001.

He then used the materials when employed as deputy general engineer at a machinery manufacturing firm in Wuhan, Hubei Province in August, 2002, said Wang Songmin, deputy director of the court.

"With the documents and drawings from the institute, Pei completed machinery designs for two projects with a total value of nearly 150 million yuan (US$18.8 million)," the judge said.

In January, the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court sentenced Pei to three years in prison for divulging business secrets and ordered him to pay a fine of 50,000 yuan (US$6,250), the court sources said.

Source: China Daily