Question

Hanjuan Jin, a citizen of China, worked as a software engineer for Motorola for many years in a division that created proprietary standards for cellular communications. Contrary to Motorola’s policies, Jin also secretly began working as a consultant for Lemko Corp., as well as with Sun Kaisens, a Chinese software company, and with the Chinese military. She started corresponding with Sun Kaisens’s management about a possible full-time job in China. Jin took several medical leaves of absence from Motorola to return to Beijing and work with Sun Kaisens and the military. After one of these medical leaves, Jin returned to Motorola. Over a period of several days, Jin accessed and downloaded thousands of documents on her personal laptop and on pen drives. When, later, she attempted to board a flight to China from Chicago, she was randomly searched by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials at the airport. U.S. officials discovered the downloaded Motorola documents. Are there any circumstances under which Jin could avoid being prosecuted for theft of trade secrets? If so, what are these circumstances? Discuss fully.

Answer 1

After going through the complete case I have determined that there are no circumstances under which Jin could avoid being prosecuted for theft of trade secrets. The reason is that there were enough evidences that proved that Jin was guilty for theft of trade secrets.

It is clearly mentioned under the restatement of the law torts, that if the party has discovered the secret by illegal or inappropriate means. And if the party releases this information by breaching of confidence of the trade secret owner, such a person will be considered guilty for theft of trade secrets.

In this case U.S. officials discovered the downloaded Motorola documents were present in Jin’s personal laptop and pen drive.

However,the circumstances under which Jin could avoid being prosecuted for theft of trade secrets would be only if she was not caught with evidences that proved her guilty for theft of trade secrets.