On the morning of the 25th day, the national intellectual property authority held a regular press conference in the fourth quarter of 2019 to provide information on the opinions on enhancing intellectual property protection. The director-general of the national intellectual property agency, song jianhua, presented current policies to strengthen intellectual property protection and increase penalties for abuse。
Over the years, we have continued to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, but there is still a gap between the effectiveness of protection and the expectations of rights holders. “low compensation” is a prominent issue. The central party and the state council have launched a series of initiatives to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in a comprehensive manner and to establish a system of punitive compensation for the integrity of intellectual property rights. This opinion on strengthening protection of intellectual property rights also states that “the introduction of a system of punitive damages for torts in the areas of patents, copyrights, etc. Should be expedited. A substantial increase in the cap on legal damages for tort and an increase in damages.”
In follow-up to the party's central and state council requests, the national intellectual property administration, after an in-depth study and extensive consultation, submitted to the state council in 2015 the draft law on patents (for submission of the draft), proposing specific programmes for the establishment of punitive damages for patent infringement. In december last year, amendments to the patent act (draft) were considered by the standing committee of the state council and first considered by the standing committee of the national people's congress. The draft provides for a system of punitive compensation for intentional infringement of patent rights, which, in serious cases, may be determined by more than double or less than five times the amount of compensation, and for an increase in legal compensation from “more than $1,000,000” to “more than $500,000”. At the same time, in april this year, the standing committee of the national people's congress amended the trademark act to increase penalties for violations of trademark rights. The amendment increased the amount of compensation for malicious infringement of trademark rights from more than twice to less than three times that of five times, and raised the statutory ceiling from $3 million to $5 million. The amendment became effective on 1 november this year. These initiatives will significantly increase the cost of ipr infringement and enhance intellectual property protection。
