On april 23, the supreme people's procuratorate held a press conference entitled “high-quality intellectual property inspection services high-level scientific and technological innovations”, which published the white paper on intellectual property inspection (2024) (hereinafter referred to as “the white paper”), informing the public prosecutor's office of the overall efforts to strengthen the judicial protection of intellectual property。
It is worth noting that, in recent days, the supreme review has been studied and reported to the office of the central agency preparation commission for its approval, and a “procursor of intellectual property” has been added to the office of the supreme prosecutor for economic crimes. The press conference on 23 april was the first public appearance of the office of the attorney-general of intellectual property rights. The official establishment of the office of the attorney-general for the inspection of intellectual property rights marks a further professional and integrated stage in the development of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the country。
In 2024, the national public prosecution service received 13486 arrests for offences against intellectual property and processed 33805 complaints, an increase of 5. 9 per cent and 10. 2 per cent, respectively。
Members of the supreme people's procuratorate's party and deputy attorney-general's palace presented at the launch session that the public prosecution service focused on a new generation of key core technologies such as information technology, artificial intelligence, high-end equipment, biomedicine, integrated circuits, strengthening judicial protection of intellectual property rights, creating a secure and stable environment for high-quality development, and developing new qualitative productivity for services tailored to local conditions。
Strengthening criminal protection of key core technologies by law
According to the white paper, in 2024, the national prosecution service received 163 cases for the prosecution of crimes against commercial secrecy, a 12. 4 per cent increase over the previous year。
The supreme inspection directed shanghai, zhejiang and guangdong to handle a number of cases and new types of cases involving artificial intelligence, chip manufacturing, power batteries, etc. That have a significant impact in the area of innovation。
The shanghai public prosecutor's office, in the case of guo's violation of the trade secrets of artificial intelligence chip technology, broke professional barriers, perfected the chain of evidence, determined by law the offence of illegal access to core technical codes by persons within the company, supervised the establishment of cases by public security organs, sentenced the accused to penalties and fined them, and assisted the courts in promoting a package of settlement of company equity disputes。
The sichuan public prosecution service handled the case of yoon yao, who committed an offence against business secrets. Through electronic data analysis and the application of physical evidence techniques, the public prosecution service has built up a complete system of evidence, applied investigators and experts to testify in court, promoted the substance of the trial, and resulted in yoon being sentenced by law to five years and six months in prison, and fined 658 million yuan for the recovery of economic damage to the rights holders。
In a case of violation of commercial secrecy in the field of security equipment applications, the beijing public prosecution service used a combination of technical investigatory and prosecutorial technical assistance systems, using remote surveys to extract key evidence, establish technical facts and establish additional criminal offences against business information through self-supplied investigations。
Strengthening intellectual property rights protection
As subjects of market innovation, there is a growing demand for and demand for judicial protection of intellectual property rights。
The deputy director of the office of the attorney-general of the supreme people's procuratorate for economic crimes (the office of the attorney-general for intellectual property rights) liu tai zheng gave a presentation at the launch, in 2024, on the basis of the responsibility of examining arrests, examining prosecutions and supervising proceedings, strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights in relation to enterprises, safeguarding the innovative dynamics of enterprises, stimulating social innovation and creating a sound environment for innovative entrepreneurship and the rule of law。
The first is to intensify the fight against corporate intellectual property offences. To uphold the equal protection of all types of ownership economy in accordance with the law, to firmly punish offences against intellectual property rights and to ensure the protection of business intellectual property rights and the legitimate interests of entrepreneurs. Over the past five years, the number of prosecutions for offences against intellectual property rights has continued to increase, creating a strong deterrent。
Of these, 9,452 crimes against intellectual property were prosecuted in 2024, or 71. 3 per cent more than in 2020. The application of property penalties is increased by law so that criminals do not benefit from the crime and are deprived of their capacity to reoffend。
For example, in the case of the production and sale of children's books by 18 persons belonging to certain categories in the beijing public prosecution service, the amount of the illegal operation amounted to more than 50 million yuan yuan. The public prosecution service has prosecuted for violations of copyright, and the defendants have been sentenced to six years ' imprisonment and 15 million yuan yuan。
Second, the focus is on strengthening the penalties for new types of offences against intellectual property. In recent years, there have been ongoing cases of intellectual property violations using new technologies, such as deep links, web-based reptiles, game suits and electronic intrusion. The public prosecution service fully utilizes the mechanisms of investigation, monitoring and coordination, and the hearing of serious and difficult cases, so as to strengthen the fight against new types of crime。
For example, in the case of a violation of commercial secrecy by three individuals, including chen wen, handled by the guangdong public prosecutor's office, the accused developed and used the reptile software to collect more than 3. 27 million customer information and transactional mail data stored in the rights holders' computer system for the same purpose. Public prosecution was conducted by the public prosecution service in accordance with the law and the accused was sentenced to a term of imprisonment and a fine。
Thirdly, the legal oversight function of the prosecution service is fully operational. (b) implement rules for the adjudication of evidence, supplementing investigations and self-investigation with returns, and comprehensively enhance the capacity to examine evidence, direct investigations and prosecute cases. (b) strengthen the monitoring of filing and investigative activities, effectively prevent and correct law enforcement in terms of profitability and prevent cases from being dismissed and improperly filed。
For example, in a case involving a crime involving the sale of counterfeit sneakers, the hebei public prosecution service, after additional investigation, found that the company and person involved in the sale had been pre-used under article 59, paragraph 3, of the trademark law of the people's republic of china, without objective acts and subjective intent to commit a crime and did not constitute a crime, and supervised the withdrawal of the case by the public security organs in accordance with the law。
Fourthly, crime is always punished alongside crime prevention. It is important to promote long-term mechanisms of social governance from case to case monitoring to social governance. Maintaining and developing the maple bridge experience of the new era, solving cases of “mixing” and “concerting” to reduce intellectual property disputes from the source. In order to address the problems of pre-eminence and predispositional social problems identified in the exercise of the functions of the public prosecutor, the competent authorities are urged, on the basis of in-depth research and studies, to strengthen risk control and to guide enterprises to develop preventive mechanisms。
For example, in a case involving the refurbishment of a crime for the sale of counterfeit optical modems, the jiangsu public prosecution service issued legal risk alerts to the companies that had been killed to promote their internal management。
The supreme people's procuratorate, together with the supreme people's court, has studied and developed the “two highs” “interpretation of certain issues applicable to the law in criminal cases of violations of intellectual property rights”, with a view to intensifying the criminal response and clarifying the criteria for the application and proof of the relevant laws。
