The supreme people's court and the supreme people's procuratorate issued today the interpretation of certain issues relating to the law applicable to criminal cases of violation of intellectual property (hereinafter referred to as the interpretation), which follows up on the decision-making and deployment of the party's central government to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and intensify criminal repression, upholds the strict principles of protection in accordance with the law, lowers the standards of admission to crime, increases the number of admissions, establishes heavy penalties and increases the ceiling applicable to fines。
The president of the third chamber of the supreme people's court (the intellectual property court), li sword, described the criminal protection of intellectual property as the most deterrent in the intellectual property protection system, as the most direct manifestation of strict protection and as an important safeguard for the effective functioning of civil and administrative protection of intellectual property。
It's a press conference
The interpretation mainly follows the criteria of incrimination set out in the original judicial interpretation and highlights the concept of strict protection of intellectual property rights on the basis of the actual lowering of the criteria of incrimination for marking offences as well as for patent fraud and the sale of tort replicas。
With regard to the criminalization of related offences, amendment (xi) to the penal code amended the provisions on the criminalization of the sale of goods that are counterfeit of registered trademarks, the sale of torts and replicas, and the offence of violation of commercial secrets. The interpretation, combined with judicial practice, increases the number of incriminating cases. For example, the “value of the sale” “value of the goods” “number of copies of the sale” is defined as an aggravating circumstance for the offence of the sale of torts and replicas; in order to severely punish multiple, long-term violations in accordance with the law, the threshold is lowered in the case of repeated violations committed after two years of criminal or administrative penalties。
The interpretation also provides for heavy penalties, with a focus on combating social hazards and the high incidence of subjective malice in the business of violating intellectual property rights, the counterfeiting of special goods during special periods, the registration of trademarks for services and the refusal to surrender the proceeds of the offence without the manifestation of repentance, with the full function of penal deterrence and crime prevention。
Li sword stated that crimes against intellectual property were crimes against the order of the socialist market economy and that the precise application of fines was essential. On the basis of the relevant provisions of the original judicial interpretation, the interpretation amended the phrase “in general, the amount of the fine shall be fixed at less than two times the amount of the offence” to “more than ten times the amount of the offence” and increased the ceiling applicable to the penalty。
“penalization of offences against intellectual property rights is strictly protected by law, and there is still a need for a policy of clemency and solidarity in criminal liability.”。
