China’s Supreme People’s Court released and effective on March 3, 2021 the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on the Application of Punitive Damages to the Trial of Civil Cases of Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights (最高人民法院关于审理侵害知识产权民事案件适用惩罚性赔偿的解释) (法释〔2021〕4号). The Interpretation defines when a plaintiff may request punitive damages in civil intellectual property infringement cases; how People’s Courts should determine if punitive damages should be awarded; and how People’s Courts should calculate the amount of punitive damages. Note that no defenses …
Category: Copyright
China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate Issues 26th Batch of Guiding Cases for Intellectual Property
On February 8, 2021, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued the 26th batch of guiding cases covering intellectual property. This batch covers 5 cases including criminal trademark, copyright and trade secret law. Foreign victims included Starbucks, Cisco, and HP in 2 of the 5 cases. A brief summary of the cases follow. The full text is available here (in Chinese only).
U.S. Trade Representative Names 5 Chinese Online Markets in 2020 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) released their annual Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy for 2020 on January 14, 2021 and included five mainland Chinese online markets in the online market section of the list. Markets on the list are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy. There is no penalty for being listed but the list has been used to encourage foreign companies and countries to crack down on piracy and counterfeiting. …
Shanghai Higher People’s Court Upholds 6-Year Prison Term and 90 Million RMB Fine for Lego Chinese Copyright Infringer
On December 29, 2020, the Shanghai Higher People’s Court announced the upholding of a criminal conviction for infringing the copyright of Lego toys. The Shanghai Third Intermediate Court had sentenced 9 people to up to 6 years in prison and a 90 million RMB (~$13 million USD) fine. The group of 9 had sold over 300 million RMB of infringing products under the Lepin (乐拼) brand and had over 30 million RMB of infringing products stored ready for sale.