Crimes Act 1961

Crimes against rights of property - Unlawful taking

230: Taking, obtaining, or copying trade secrets

You could also call this:

“ It's against the law to steal or copy secret business information for personal gain or to harm others. ”

You could go to prison for up to 5 years if you try to make money or cause someone else to lose money by taking, getting, or copying a trade secret without permission. This applies if you know the document, model, or picture you’re taking contains a trade secret.

A trade secret is information that can be used in business or industry. It’s not something everyone knows about, and it has value because it’s kept secret. The person who owns the trade secret must try hard to keep it a secret.

For it to be a trade secret, the information must be able to be used in business or industry. It must not be widely known in that field. It must have value or potential value to the person who has it. The owner of the information must make real efforts to keep it secret.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM330238.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
Business > Fair trading
Business > Intellectual property

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Part 10 Crimes against rights of property
Unlawful taking

230Taking, obtaining, or copying trade secrets

  1. Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years who, with intent to obtain any pecuniary advantage or to cause loss to any other person,—

  2. dishonestly and without claim of right, takes, obtains, or copies any document or any model or other depiction of any thing or process containing or embodying any trade secret, knowing that it contains or embodies a trade secret; or
    1. dishonestly and without claim of right, takes or obtains any copy of any document or any model or other depiction of any thing or process containing or embodying any trade secret, knowing that it contains or embodies a trade secret.
      1. For the purposes of this section, trade secret means any information that—

      2. is, or has the potential to be, used industrially or commercially; and
        1. is not generally available in industrial or commercial use; and
          1. has economic value or potential economic value to the possessor of the information; and
            1. is the subject of all reasonable efforts to preserve its secrecy.
              Notes
              • Section 230: replaced, on , by section 15 of the Crimes Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 39).