In follow up to China’s Ministry of Public Security’s press conference on April 23, 2021 regarding criminal Intellectual Property (IP) law investigations, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) on April 25, 2021 released criminal IP law prosecution data and a list of typical cases. In 2020, the SPP prosecuted 12,163 people in 5,847 cases, a year-on-year increase of 7.6% and 10.4% respectively. Criminal trademark infringement cases accounted for 94.2% of the total, copyright infringement cases accounted for 5.3% of the total, …
Category: Copyright
China’s Ministry of Public Security Releases Status of Intellectual Property Criminal Investigations and Lists Typical Cases of Public Security Agencies Cracking Down on Crimes of Intellectual Property Infringement
On April 23, 2021, China’s Ministry of Public Security held a press conference on the status of enforcing criminal intellectual property (IP) infringement laws. At the press conference, the Ministry said that during the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan,” which just ended, public security agencies across China have investigated more than 90,000 criminal cases of infringement of intellectual property rights and production and sale of counterfeit goods with a value of more than 47 billion RMB, and arrested more than 130,000 criminal …
Bulgari (BVLGARI) Wins at Beijing’s Intellectual Property Court Invalidating Hijacker’s Serpenti Snake Head Trademark
On April 1, 2021, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court announced a ruling in favor of Bulgari over a third party’s trademark registration of Bulgari’s Serpenti snake head design. The Court found that Liu’s registered Chinese trademark 15911982 for a snake head design infringed Bulgari’s copyright in the design, reversing the China National Intellectual Property Administration‘s (CNIPA) earlier ruling. This decision shows one useful approach to challenging trademark squatters and hijackers in China is to use copyright law when a design …
The Intellectual Property Tribunal of China’s Supreme People’s Court Released Top 10 Cases of Technical Intellectual Property Rights in 2020
On February 26, 2021, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court released a list of top 10 cases of technical intellectual property rights for 2020 that the tribunal ruled on. The list covers anti-suit injunctions, trade secret theft, punitive damages, software copyright infringement, utility model infringement, invention patent invalidation, dueling administrative and civil enforcement appeals of patents, integrated circuit layout design infringement, affirmative injunctions and antitrust.