Cities including Zhengzhou, Ningbo, and Wuhan has proposed to establish the next Intellectual Property Court in China
Recently, the "14th Five-Year Plan" Proposals have been released in various cities. Until now, Wuhan, Ningbo, Zhengzhou etc. have put forward the goal of establishing Intellectual Property Courts in the proposals.
The Intellectual Property Court is a judicial institution established in the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform" to strengthen the use and protection of intellectual property rights and improve the incentive mechanism for technological innovation. On August 31, 2014, the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress voted and approved the decision of establishing Intellectual Property Courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. On December 31, 2020, the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court was officially started to operate, became the fourth Intellectual Property Court established after Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Jiangsu released the 2020 Intellectual Property Rights Protection Typical Cases
Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision Bureau held a Press Conference on January 11th to notify about the law enforcement of intellectual property rights in the field of market supervision in Jiangsu Province. During the Conference, it also released the "Top Ten Foreign-related Typical Cases" and "Top Ten Typical Cases of Intellectual Property Protection by the Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision Bureau in 2020." The reporter noticed that a company in Wuxi was fined for applying for the registration of the "Huoshenshan" and "Leishenshan" trademarks.
The report stated that this case is different from the crime of illicit quality and price of anti-epidemic materials. The impact is focused on the spiritual and cultural aspects. The quick investigation of such cases also reflects the market supervision system's law enforcement concept of maintaining fairness and justice in a special period of Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, this case has played an effective deterrent effect in regulating intellectual property agencies’ behavior, and maintaining a fair and orderly market operation environment.
In 2020, Jiangsu investigated and dealt with 3,837 intellectual property cases, valued at RMB 65,980,600, and fined RMB 79,972,400. Among them, there were 2,561 trademark cases with a fine of 77.0805 million yuan; 1,149 patent cases with a fine of 1,247,600 yuan.
Tianjin No.2 Intermediate Court Concluded the First Foreign Copyright Infringement Criminal Case
Recently, Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate Court concluded a criminal case of infringement of foreign copyright. This is the first time the Court has trialed a criminal case of foreign copyright infringement.
From February 2017 to December 2018, in order to produce and sell pirated CDs that infringed on foreign copyrights, Chen XX recruited multiple personnel cooperated, purchased CDs of original film and television works for the production of master disks, and entrusted a CD production company to do so. After production, the finished pirated CDs are packaged and sold to others by way of online ordering. The personnel who bought the CDs then sold pirated CDs abroad for profit through the website. After the incident, more than 500,000 pirated CDs were seized.
During the trial of the case, the Court appointed legal aid lawyers for the three defendants who did not entrust a defender. After soliciting all the parties and defenders’ opinions, the trial was conducted by stages and in batches. It went through three trials, which fully protected the parties’ litigation rights. The Court judged in accordance with the law that the CD-ROM production company committed a crime as a unit and was fined 4.5 million yuan. More than ten natural person defendants in the whole case were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from one year and six months to five years, including one defendant was applied probation in accordance with the law.
Kunming Customs Seized 125,000 pieces of Intellectual Property Infringement Goods in 2020
The reporter known from Kunming Customs on January 12 that in 2020, Kunming Customs seized 445 batches and 125,000 pieces of goods that infringed on intellectual property rights, a year-on-year increase of 41.71% and 149.34% respectively.
Recently, Kunming Changshui Airport Customs, affiliated to Kunming Customs, seized a batch of infringing goods in export goods channels, totaling more than 17,000 pieces, involving glasses, sports shoes, backpacks and other categories, infringing on the intellectual property rights of twenty brands.
Kunming Customs also established a training model for key intellectual property rights protection enterprises, formulated independent IPR assistance mechanisms, and strengthened the IPR protection of domestic independent brands.
Kunming Customs' crackdown on infringements and illegal activities has maintained a fair and orderly import and export trade environment, and has become a "weapon" to boost product export growth and enhance the competitiveness of independent brands in foreign markets. In 2020, the Yunnei Power’s total value of complete machine parts export to Myanmar reached 15 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45%.
