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Cal. Penal Code § 499c (2026)

✓ current as of May 2026
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(a)As used in this section:

(1)“Access” means to approach, a way or means of approaching, nearing, admittance to, including to instruct, communicate with, store information in, or retrieve information from a computer system or computer network.

(2)“Article” means any object, material, device, or substance or copy thereof, including any writing, record, recording, drawing, sample, specimen, prototype, model, photograph, micro-organism, blueprint, map, or tangible representation of a computer program or information, including both human and computer readable information and information while in transit.

(3)“Benefit” means gain or advantage, or anything regarded by the beneficiary as gain or advantage, including benefit to any other person or entity in whose welfare he or she is interested.

(4)“Computer system” means a machine or collection of machines, one or more of which contain computer programs and information, that performs functions, including, but not limited to, logic, arithmetic, information storage and retrieval, communications, and control.

(5)“Computer network” means an interconnection of two or more computer systems.

(6)“Computer program” means an ordered set of instructions or statements, and related information that, when automatically executed in actual or modified form in a computer system, causes it to perform specified functions.

(7)“Copy” means any facsimile, replica, photograph or other reproduction of an article, and any note, drawing or sketch made of or from an article.

(8)“Representing” means describing, depicting, containing, constituting, reflecting or recording.

(9)“Trade secret” means information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that:

(A)Derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to the public or to other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and

(B)Is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.

(b)Every person is guilty of theft who, with intent to deprive or withhold the control of a trade secret from its owner, or with an intent to appropriate a trade secret to his or her own use or to the use of another, does any of the following:

(1)Steals, takes, carries away, or uses without authorization, a trade secret.

(2)Fraudulently appropriates any article representing a trade secret entrusted to him or her.

(3)Having unlawfully obtained access to the article, without authority makes or causes to be made a copy of any article representing a trade secret.

(4)Having obtained access to the article through a relationship of trust and confidence, without authority and in breach of the obligations created by that relationship, makes or causes to be made, directly from and in the presence of the article, a copy of any article representing a trade secret.

(c)Every person who promises, offers or gives, or conspires to promise or offer to give, to any present or former agent, employee or servant of another, a benefit as an inducement, bribe or reward for conveying, delivering or otherwise making available an article representing a trade secret owned by his or her present or former principal, employer or master, to any person not authorized by the owner to receive or acquire the trade secret and every present or former agent, employee, or servant, who solicits, accepts, receives or takes a benefit as an inducement, bribe or reward for conveying, delivering or otherwise making available an article representing a trade secret owned by his or her present or former principal, employer or master, to any person not authorized by the owner to receive or acquire the trade secret, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170, or by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment.

(d)In a prosecution for a violation of this section, it shall be no defense that the person returned or intended to return the article.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 10 cases, 1974–2010 · leading case: Moore v. Regents of Univ. of California, 793 P.2d 479 (Cal. 1990).
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Moore v. Regents of Univ. of California, 793 P.2d 479 (Cal. 1990). · cites it 2× “(Pen. Code, § 499c, subd. (a)(2).) [18] Brown ( 44 Cal.”
Silvaco Data Sys. v. Intel Corp., 184 Cal. App. 4th 210 (Cal. Ct. App. 2010). “For example, Penal Code Section 499c *235 provides for criminal penalties for misappropriation of trade secrets.”
People v. LAIWALA, 83 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1377 (Cal. Ct. App. 2006). · cites it 3× “Defendant Sadrudin Laiwala was originally convicted by court trial of grand theft of a trade secret (Pen. Code, § 499c). In February 2004, this court reversed the conviction on the ground that the record contained “insufficient evidence that information taken by [Laiwala]…”
People v. Hawkins, 121 Cal. Rptr. 2d 627 (Cal. Ct. App. 2002). “After hearing testimony for six days, a jury acquitted defendant David Wesley Hawkins of a charge of misappropriating a trade secret (count 1; Pen. Code, § 499c) 1 and convicted him of a relatively new computer crime, the felony of knowingly accessing and taking data from a…”
O'GRADY v. Superior Court, 79 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1398 (Cal. Ct. App. 2006). “8 Penal Code section 499c criminalizes the misappropriation or attempted misappropriation of trade secrets under specified circumstances.”
People v. Eubanks, 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9329 (Cal. 1996). “) In the course of that hearing, the court repeatedly stated its firm impression that the subject secrets, which Wang and Eubanks were alleged to have conspired to steal, Wang to have stolen and Eubanks to have received, do not in fact meet the definition of trade secrets for…”
Stadish v. Superior Court, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3199 (Cal. Ct. App. 1999). · cites it 2× “" Penal Code section 499c, subdivision (a)(9) provides as follows: "`Trade secret' means information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that: [¶] (A) Derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being…”
Stamicarbon, N v. V. Am. Cyanamid Co., 506 F.2d 532 (2d Cir. 1974). “, Penal Code § 499c; Colo.Rev.Stats.1967, Perm.”
People v. Pribich, 94 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 768 (Cal. Ct. App. 1994). · cites it 6× “Boris Pribich appeals after a jury convicted him of one count of the theft of trade secrets (Pen. Code, § 499c, subd. (b)(2)) and found the offense to be a misdemeanor petty theft.”
Religious Tech. Ctr. v. Wollersheim, 796 F.2d 1076 (9th Cir. 1986). · cites it 2× “In its supplementary findings of fact, the district court noted that the new church offers its services to its adherents at a price “substantially less than that charged by the Church.”
— Cal. Penal Code § 499c(a)(9) — 1 case
Religious Tech. Ctr. v. Wollersheim, 796 F.2d 1076 (9th Cir. 1986). “In its supplementary findings of fact, the district court noted that the new church offers its services to its adherents at a price “substantially less than that charged by the Church.”
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