On April 26, the World Intellectual Property Day, the Changsha Municipal Public Security Bureau of Hunan Province, China, informed that the Bureau's intellectual property crime investigation unit had recently detected and solved a trade secret misappropriation case reported by the e-cigarette giant Smoore International Holdings Ltd (6969: Hong Kong).

In October 2020, the Changsha police received a report from Shenzhen-based Smoore International that several employees, who departed from its subordinate Changsha Research Institute, violated the company's confidentiality agreement and requirements.

Those departed employees used the company's trade secrets to invest in the production of ceramic atomizing core products and for external sales, a serious infringement of the e-cigarette giant's trade secrets.

Smoore International Holdings Ltd, the world's biggest vaping device provider, has established many technical research and development institutions and manufacturing plants in Shenzhen, Changsha, and other parts of China, and its products are mainly sold to the United States, Europe, and other overseas markets.

Changsha police informed that, after investigation, from November 2018, the suspect surnamed Ou gathered several other people conspired to use the core technology touched and mastered by working in Smoore International to set up their own business.

These suspects left the company one after another, and have established companies in several cities in Hunan Province to open production plants and produce ceramic atomizing core products for sales.

The suspects illegally obtained huge profits, involving a value of nearly $3.1 million (20 million yuan). At present, the seven suspects for allegedly misappropriating trade secrets have been approved for arrest by the Changsha Municipal People's Procuratorate.