The rapid expansion of Chinese brands into Southeast Asia has created both tremendous opportunities and significant challenges for trademark protection. As reported in the Business Times on July 21, 2025, ‘‘Chinese brands are piling into Southeast Asia,’’ with companies seeking to capitalize on the region's growing consumer markets and expanding middle class.
Chinese tech companies are expanding at great speed across the Asia-Pacific, with Southeast Asia emerging as a key growth market. Investments and knowledge transfer are driving competitive edge. Yet, this expansion poses new challenges for trade secrets protection as businesses must navigate diverse legal systems while securing their proprietary technologies.
In today's digital economy, computer systems have become the default medium for storing critical company information. The shift has fundamentally transformed the landscape of trade secrets protection.
Traditional trade secrets laws, while pillars of protection, are increasingly insufficient on their own to address the realities of digital information storage and transmission.
This comprehensive analysis reveals that companies operating across Southeast Asia must leverage computer misuse and unauthorized access laws in each jurisdiction to create robust, multi-layered protection strategies.
This guide provides detailed analysis of how companies can integrate computer misuse laws with traditional trade secrets protection across Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore to create comprehensive digital-age strategies for confidentiality.
Indonesia provides trade secrets protection primarily through Law No. 30 of 2000 on Trade Secrets (‘Trade Secret Law’), which establishes the fundamental framework for confidential information protection. However, the enforcement landscape presents unique challenges that require strategic legal planning.
When drafting trade secrets or confidentiality agreements for use in Indonesia, practitioners should adopt a structured approach encompassing three core elements:
A critical recommendation for Indonesian trade secrets agreements is the inclusion of liquidated damages clauses. This approach addresses a fundamental weakness in the Indonesian civil procedure system: the difficulty of enforcing injunctive relief, particularly restraining orders.
While Article 11 of the Trade Secret Law provides a basis for restraining orders, the enforcement mechanism remains unclear. Indonesian civil procedure lacks provisions for enforcing restraining orders.
Liquidated damages clauses provide more effective deterrence by making financial consequences immediately apparent, while simultaneously addressing the typical difficulty of quantifying damages in trade secret breach cases.
Due to challenges in enforcing trade secrets agreements in the region generally, it is also worth considering the liquidated damages strategy in countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, where enforcement of injunctive relief is similarly difficult and quantifying damages poses challenges.
Given enforcement uncertainties in district courts, arbitration offers several advantages for parties seeking to resolve trade secrets disputes in Indonesia:
Thus, consider providing for arbitration as dispute resolution in trade secrets/ Confidentiality agreements.
Indonesia's Law Number 11 of 2008 on Electronic Information Transaction (ITE Law), as amended by Law Number 1 of 2024, provides an additional protection layer through criminalization of unauthorized computer system access.
Companies should establish robust IT policies that clearly define authorized versus unauthorized access, incorporated into employee handbooks and employment contracts.
The ITE Law route often proves more effective than traditional Trade Secrets Law enforcement, as police are more likely to accept complaints supported by clear IT policy violations and system logs.
Thailand provides trade secrets protection through the Trade Secrets Act B.E. 2545 (2002), which defines trade secrets as information that:
The challenges in trade secrets litigation in Thailand lie in the fact that courts often dismiss cases when the plaintiff, as the owner of the information, cannot prove that the information qualifies as a trade secret due to the lack of appropriate measures taken to maintain secrecy for documents or data.
Thailand's Computer-Related Crime Act of 2017 (CCA) provides significant additional protection for trade secrets through criminalization of computer-related offenses. This law strengthens protection where confidential business information is stored in electronic systems by penalizing unauthorized access to computer systems that have specific access-prevention measures, offering companies a powerful supplementary tool to safeguard confidential information stored in digital systems.
Companies should adopt practical measures to establish and maintain secrecy, such as comprehensive IT policies that expressly define authorized access parameters, confidentiality agreements, restricted access protocols, and clear labeling of confidential documents. Courts require proof that the information has commercial value and that the owner has taken reasonable steps to preserve its secrecy.
Civil or criminal proceedings under the Trade Secrets Act may be pursued alongside prosecutions under the CCA. This combined strategy strengthens both preventive and enforcement measures, particularly for trade secrets stored in digital systems.
Vietnam addresses trade secrets protection primarily through its Labor Code and supplementary regulations. Article 21.2 of Vietnam Labor Code 2019 allows employers to reach written agreements with employees regarding business or technology secrets protection, including content, duration, benefits, and compensation for any breach, often set out in NDAs or, where relevant, tightly defined non-compete clauses.
The agreement should address the following:
In addition to the matters expressly provided by law, the parties typically agree on the definition of confidential information, the identities of the parties involved, the scope of information to be disclosed, the permitted use of such information, the duration of confidentiality, exclusions, and other mutually agreed terms.
The legal landscape has improved with the introduction of personal data protection rules (Decree No. 13/2023 and Law on Personal Data Protection) and cybersecurity regulations. However, these instruments largely support the protection of network security and data of state organisations or individual users, rather than establishing a dedicated regime for trade secret protection. Some challenges persist, as enforcement mechanisms remain fragmented and rely heavily on businesses' own efforts.
Vietnam's approach emphasizes contractual protection through employment relationships, which can be strengthened by incorporating cybersecurity obligations:
The Philippines provides trade secret protection through several laws. The Revised Penal Code protects trade secrets through Article 291: penalizing managers and employees who reveal employer secrets and Article 292: penalizing workers who disclose industrial secrets to the detriment of the business owner.
Trade secrets are defined as plans, processes, tools, mechanisms, or compounds known only to the owner and necessary employees. These may also include formulas, patterns, devices, or compilations of information that: (1) are used in one's business; and (2) give the employer an advantage over competitors. Courts consider six factors in determining whether information qualifies as a trade secret, including the extent of secrecy measures, the information's value to competitors, and the difficulty of independent acquisition.
The Cybercrime Prevention Act provides criminal penalties for unauthorized access, interception, and interference with electronic data. Importantly, if trade secret violations under Articles 291 and 292 are committed using information and communications technologies (such as hacking, unauthorized downloading, or emailing confidential files), the offender faces penalties one degree higher than standard violations, creating a stronger deterrent for digital trade secrets theft.
The Supreme Court's amended Rules on Evidence expressly recognize the privileged nature of trade secrets, preventing compelled testimony about trade secrets unless non-disclosure would conceal fraud or work injustice.
Companies should leverage cybersecurity frameworks to supplement traditional protection:
Singapore offers strong trade secrets protection through well-developed common law principles and contractual enforcement mechanisms, enhanced by comprehensive cybersecurity legislation. Nonetheless, litigation costs can be significant hindrance in enforcing company's rights.
Singapore's Computer Misuse Act provides strong criminal sanctions for unauthorized computer access that can significantly enhance trade secrets protection strategies.
The Computer Misuse Act provides particularly effective protection because:
Companies should establish clear IT access policies and robust logging systems to document unauthorized access. Employee agreements should explicitly define authorized access parameters. The Act's coverage means that any employee or third party exceeding authorized access can face criminal prosecution, providing immediate recourse while civil remedies are pursued.
Similar to Singapore, Malaysia protects trade secrets through common law tort of breach of confidential information and contractual obligations, requiring three elements: information of confidential nature, circumstances imposing confidentiality duty, and unauthorized use causing detriment.
Malaysia's Cyber Security Act 2024, in force as of August 26, 2024, provides opportunities to enhance trade secrets protection through comprehensive cybersecurity requirements and severe penalties for violations.
Companies should align their trade secrets protection strategies with Malaysia's new cybersecurity requirements. The Act creates mandatory cybersecurity standards that, when properly implemented, provide robust technical safeguards for confidential information.
Trade secrets protection across Southeast Asia requires a nuanced understanding of diverse legal frameworks and strategic implementation of multi-layered protection measures. While each jurisdiction presents unique challenges and opportunities, success depends on:
In order to leverage on the unauthorized access laws in these South East Asian jurisdictions, HR practices should include:
The integration of traditional confidentiality agreements with modern cybersecurity frameworks represents the future of effective trade secrets protection in the region.
Organizations operating across these markets should regularly review and update their protection strategies, ensuring alignment with local legal developments while maintaining consistency in their approach to confidential information management.
Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia: Kin Wah Chow, Evi Triana, Daniel Markho Santoso
Thailand: Ning (Nontaya) Chulajata
Vietnam: Khanh Nguyen, My Anh Truong
Philippines: Edmund Jason Baranda, Juan Samuel Loyola