Beijing enforces first aigc trade secret penalty with 100,000 yuan fine

The Beijing Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau has issued a landmark administrative penalty in the AIGC industry, fining an employee 100,000 yuan for misusing confidential information to replicate a company's AI commercial software. The case, disclosed by the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, marks the first instance of such enforcement in the field. The rights holder, a company specializing in foreign language dubbing and AI multilingual film subtitling for micro-short videos, developed proprietary AIGC software that significantly reduces subtitling time. This software is a core asset for the company's overseas expansion strategy. A core employee copied and cracked the database during employment, then used the software in a new company after leaving, taking competitive orders for profit. Law enforcement officers overcame challenges posed by the hidden and high-threshold nature of AIGC commercial secrets by collecting electronic data evidence from involved computers and servers. By cross-referencing software installation traces, database access logs, and project output files, they reconstructed the entire chain of copying, cracking, and reuse across companies. Based on Article 26 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, the individual was fined 10,000 yuan and received guidance on improving confidentiality measures, including permission grading, log recording, and exit audits. This case represents the first administrative confirmation that AIGC commercial software can be protected as a trade secret. It also demonstrates regulators' ability to overcome evidence collection challenges using electronic evidence collection. The case clearly defines boundaries: employees can switch platforms, but cannot use their former company's AI digital assets as capital for entrepreneurship. Beijing has taken a significant step forward in protecting trade secrets in the new forms of the digital economy.