The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday upheld the convictions of three former board members of Jieneng Technology (Shenzhen) Ltd. in a case of intellectual property rights (IPR) theft, yesterday's Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

A ruling on the appeal by another defendant Mo Siyuan, who didn't appear in court Tuesday, will be handed down later, the report said.

Wang Weidong, Meng Fanliang and Gui Jisheng were first convicted by the Yantian District People's Court of IPR theft in December 2006. Wang and Mo were former employees of Hong Kong Jimmy Technology, the parent company of Jimmy Technology (Shenzhen) Ltd., the plaintiff in the case.

The Yantian court sentenced the four to prison terms ranging from 10 months to three years and ordered them to pay Jimmy Technology (Shenzhen) a total of 8.16 million yuan (US$1.05 million) in compensation.

The case made newspaper headlines because the secret technology at the heart of the case, a series of new fuel additives, was the first technology sold at the First China Hi-Tech Fair in 1999. The buyer of the technology later set up the Hong Kong Jimmy and Shenzhen Jimmy companies together with Chen Yuanhang, the inventor of the technology.

Before joining Jimmy Technology (Hong Kong), Wang, Mo and Meng were board chairman, general manager and legal consultant of Hainan-based Nanhong Energy Technologies Co. Ltd., which sold fuel additives produced by Jimmy from November 2000.

Wang and Mo joined Jimmy Technology (Hong Kong) in February 2002 and were asked to audit Jimmy Technology (Shenzhen) in February 2002, according to the verdict of the intermediate court.

They left Jimmy Technology (Hong Kong) two months later to establish Jieneng in September 2002. Starting from October, Jieneng sold products similar to that of Jimmy, according to the verdict.

The verdict said the four stole the secret technology while auditing Jimmy Technology information.

According to an appraisal by the IPR center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the product of Jieneng contains at least two key elements of Jimmy's product.

Editor: Yan