[Article/Trade Secrets] Can a Company Enjoin an Employee’s Use or Disclosure of Trade Secrets the Employee Developed or Acquired Personally?
Updated: 6 hours ago
Article information
Article type: Publication review
Category: Unfair competition law
Topics: Injunctions, Trade secrets
First published on this website: 2026-11-01
Display and classification checked: November 2, 2026
Originally published on Ameblo: 2025-05-25 (Japan time). Full English translation.
[Article/Trade Secrets] Can a Company Enjoin an Employee's Use or Disclosure of Trade Secrets the Employee Developed or Acquired Personally? (Asayo Oyori, Theory and Practice of Intellectual Property Law, Vol. 3)
*Cases granting an injunction
(1) Sapporo District Court order, July 8, 1994: customer list
(2) Osaka District Court, December 22, 1998: technical guidance received at the secondment destination
(3) Tokyo District Court interlocutory judgment, December 26, 2002: list of dispatched staff
*Osaka District Court, August 28, 1997: use/disclosure for an improper purpose was rejected, but the determination assumed that the defendant's acts could fall within item (vii).
*Cases denying an injunction
(1) Tokyo District Court, November 30, 1998: the defendant knew the information thoroughly without needing to consult the customer list. Use rejected.
(2) Osaka District Court, 2002 (Wa) 3162: the defendant knew the addresses and other information without consulting the customer list. Use rejected.
Cf. Other cases concerning the requirement that information be “disclosed” to the recipient
(1) Tokyo District Court, 2001 (Wa) 5663 [Personal Importation of Viagra Case]: patient information obtained by the defendant in the course of duties as a physician was not a trade secret held by the plaintiff, who had commissioned the work.
(2) Tokyo High Court, 2002 (Ne) 1413 [At-Cost Sale Case]: wholesale prices are formed through negotiations between seller and buyer, so each independently acquires the information; it is not information “disclosed” to the recipient.
(3) Tokyo High Court order, March 31, 2003: credit-card application information was independently acquired by both the credit-card company and the points-card issuer, rather than being information “disclosed” to the recipient.
Translator’s notes (editorial)
The source does not give a pronunciation for the article author’s name; romanized as Asayo Oyori.
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November 2, 2026: Added article information, classification, topics, language navigation, related articles where the same case was confirmed, consultation guidance, and SEO. The original text and first-published date were preserved.
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