New applications of China’s interpretation of Intellectual Property related criminal cases could be on the horizon. Founders Legal’s preferred Foreign Counsel, Chofn IP reports that on June 17, 2020, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of China publicly released a draft of 17 articles titled The Interpretation (III) on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases Involving Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights. The articles aim at providing a more specific application of the law in IP related criminal cases.

According to Chofn IP, “The draft highlights the following issues in particular:

1. How to determine “a trademark identical with the registered trademark” in the crime of passing off;
2. How to define the “copyright owner” and “without the permission of the copyright owner” in the crime of copyright infringement;
3. The specific “other illegitimate means” in the crime of trade secret infringement;
4. How to determine “causing substantive damage to the owner of the trade secret” or “causing severe consequences” and how to calculate or determine the amount of loss or the illegitimate income;
5. Protective measures for trade secret during the criminal proceeding;
6. The scenarios where probation, mitigated penalty, and/or exemption are not applicable; and
7. Application of non-competition restrictions, application of penalties, etc.”

Public comments and opinions are being accepted until August 2nd, 2020.

To learn more about our Chinese Foreign Counsel, please visit Chofn IP, a full-service IP firm based in Beijing, visit www.chofn.com
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