In recent days, the supreme people's court and the supreme people's procuratorate have jointly issued the interpretation (iii) of the supreme people's court and the supreme people's procuratorate on a number of issues relating to the specific application of the law in criminal cases involving violations of intellectual property rights (hereinafter referred to as “interpretative”), which lowers the threshold for offences against trade secrets, expands the threshold for offences, includes the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of violations of business secrets, the bankruptcy and bankruptcy of rights holders as a result of violations of trade secrets, and adjusts the amount of offences from “more than 500,000 yuan” to “more than 300,000 yuan”. The interpretation came into effect on 14 september 2020。
The criminal case of intellectual property rights, especially commercial secrets, condensed the intellectual output of the inventors of large volumes of labour creation and characterized by secrecy, utility and economy, and such commercial secrets may not be protected by copyright or patent rights laws。
In modern business operations, regardless of size, stage of development, an enterprise may not have a patent, but it must have different types of business secrets that require the protection of commercial secrets。
In response to a question from journalists, the head of the civil chamber of the supreme people's court and the head of the fourth procurator's office of the supreme people's procuratorate also stated that, in judicial practice, with socio-economic development, new types of intellectual property offences are emerging, and that criminal cases of intellectual property rights, particularly cases of violations of business secrets, are more controversial and need to be clearly explained and regulated。
A total of 12 articles of the interpretation act, which began to be applied in 14 years, provide, inter alia, for three main elements: first, the establishment of sentencing criteria for offences against trade secrets, the establishment of different methods of calculation of loss according to the degree of social harm caused by different acts, with a view to harmonizing applicable standards of law; second, the further clarification of specific convictions for crimes of forgery of trademarks, “same trademarks”, violations of copyright, “unlicensed rights of authors”, offences against commercial secrets, etc., with a view to harmonizing judicial practice; and third, the clarification of the application of penalties for offences against intellectual property rights and the determination of criminal policy in a broad manner, providing for heavier penalties, the non-applicability of suspended sentences and a lighter penalty, and further regulation of sentencing criteria。
"upgrading" intellectual property protection in shenzhen by 97. 3 per cent
As an open front for reform in our country, shenzhen has a high-tech enterprise. The prevalence of hard of proof, long life cycles and high costs of intellectual property rights may discourage innovation in enterprises. In 2019, the shenzhen city court received 42,660 new cases, an increase of 53. 9 per cent over the same period, which accounted for about one third of the total intake of cases in the province. Of these, 41,031 cases were disposed of, representing an increase of 49 per cent over the same period, and 97. 3 per cent were closed. Eight injunctions were issued, involving over 100 million yuan, to break the “failure of redress”。
In april this year, shenzhen city issued 10 major cases of intellectual property rights in 2019, further enhancing the protection of intellectual property rights. In june, in conjunction with shenzhen, the six violations were set to re-establish the amount of punitive compensation, enhance its relevance and feasibility. In july, the first commercial secret protection base in guangdong province was successfully unveiled at the south mount intellectual property protection centre, a joint commercial secret protection base established at three levels in the capital city of guangdong province。
Trademark infringement. Bureau
The infringement of trademarks is tantamount to “the theft” of the reputation and brand value of the business market, and the shan brands look to the unwitting confusion of consumers to steal market shares, while the reproduction of trademarks is purely “subjective”, especially for high-profile trademarks。
In march of this year, in connection with the approval of a liquor company in guizhou to register the word “royal glory” as a trademark, telecommunication technology (shenzhen) ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “shenzhen”) filed a complaint against the national intellectual property agency (inip), which was heard online by the beijing intellectual property court。
This case dates back to 2018. The state intellectual property office has requested the annulment of the “royal glory” trademark in the wine industry of guizhou under the trademarks act, on the grounds that the trademarks of the telecommunication company violated the rights of the telecommunication company to pre-authorise and that the telecommunication company's “royal glory” trademark constituted a proximate trademark on similar goods, which could easily be misrecognized by the public。
The disputed trademark
According to the national intellectual property office, while the two “governors' glory” constituted a similar trademark, they differed considerably in terms of the place of sale, the object of the service, etc., and did not constitute a similar trademark on a similar commodity. At the same time, as “the king's glory” is the word of a general print body that cannot express the ideas and feelings of the work independently, it is not part of the protected work provided for in our copyright act, and therefore concludes that the registration of a trademark in the wine industry in guizhou does not infringe on the copyright of the telecommunication company and does not constitute an act of exaggerated propaganda and unfair competition under the trademark act。
Subsequently, in march of this year, in response to a ruling by the national intellectual property agency, tate filed a lawsuit with the beijing intellectual property court, asking zeng yuen liquor limited to intervene as a third person。
According to the beijing court of intellectual property rights, on the basis of the evidence submitted by the plaintiff, the 100-degree search index for the period from 1 october 2015 to 19 february 2016, with the key word “the king's glory”, showed a peak of 150,000 on 28 october 2015. In addition, the telecommunications corporation has actively cooperated with mcdonald's and coca-cola corporation in areas closely related to the use of commodities, such as beverages, catering, etc., for which there is a high degree of convergence between the audience in the game and those in related fields, such as beverages, alcoholic beverages, catering, etc。
The court found that wang glory had gained a high degree of public interest at the beginning of the line and that that visibility had been the fruit of the plaintiff's creative work and the commercial value and business opportunities it had brought to the plaintiff's investment in labour and capital. The claim against the trademark “royal glory” coincided with the title of the king's glory game and constituted an approximation, and the judgement set aside the decision against him and ordered the national intellectual property authority to re-decide。
The law, though slow, can also be forward-looking. The definition of “same trademark” in this interpretation expands six detailed definitions, article vi of which provides that “other trademarks which are essentially non-differentiated from registered trademarks are sufficient to mislead the public”. It can be characterized as “the same trademark as its registered trademark” under article 213 of the penal code
The technological market has become more dynamic with the increased emphasis on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and the optimization of the transformation of the environment, as well as the accelerated improvement of the regulatory and regulatory system of industry and the system of technical and professional services. Criminal justice protection is the “maidal river” of scientific and technological innovation。
According to ministry of science and technology public data published in august, in the first half of 2020, 1,36434 registered technical contracts were registered nationwide, representing a decrease of 7. 3 per cent over the same period and a deal of 77,072 million yuan, representing an increase of 6. 5 per cent over the same period. By type of intellectual property, 56,287 technical contracts involving intellectual property were concluded, amounting to $36,120 million, or 46. 9 per cent of the total number of national technical contracts。
