On April 20, 2023, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases in Chinese Courts in 2022 (2022年中国法院10大知识产权案件). The cases include the first patent linkage case, trademark infringement, unfair competition in search engine optimization, criminal counterfeiting of registered trademarks, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and others. The list of cases along with an explanation of each as provided by the SPC follow.
Category: Copyright
China’s Ministry of Public Security Announces 10 Typical Cases of Strengthening Protection of Intellectual Property Rights via Criminal Law Enforcement
On April 19, 2023, China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced 10 typical cases of strengthening protection of intellectual property rights via criminal law enforcement and supporting comprehensive innovation (公安部公布加强知识产权刑事保护支持全面创新10起典型案例). The MPS also stated that “in 2022, a total of 27,000 criminal cases of intellectual property infringement and the production and sale of counterfeit and inferior commodities were cracked, effectively curbing the frequent occurrence of such crimes.” The announcement from the MPS follows.
Copyright Registrations Up 1.42% in China YoY for 2022; Software Copyright Registrations Down 19.5%
Per data released on March 21, 2023 by the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC), the number of copyright registrations in China for 2022 was 6,353,144, a year-on-year increase of 1.42%. However, there were 1,835,341 computer software copyright registrations in 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 19.50%.
China’s Supreme People’s Court & Supreme People’s Procuratorate Release Draft Interpretation of Handling Criminal Cases of Intellectual Property Infringement
On January 18, 2023 China’s Supreme People’s Court and China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate released the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Intellectual Property Infringement (Draft for comments) (关于办理侵犯知识产权刑事案件适用法律若干问题的解释（征求意见稿)). The Interpretation mainly sets thresholds for determining criminal prosecution, e.g., when there are “serious circumstances” in trademark infringement. The Interpretation will replace earlier Interpretations including the 2020 Interpretation.