China lowers conviction criteria of IPR violations

China announced Tuesday stricter criteria for intellectual property right (IPR) violations, intensifying the crackdown on rampant IPR infringements.

The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a joint press conference Tuesday in Beijing to announce the judicial interpretation of the Criminal Law application on IPR violations. The new criteria will go into effect on December 22.

The interpretation, with 17 articles, will make it easier to prosecute IPR violations and give out tougher sentences to offenders, said Cao Jianming, vice-president of the Supreme Court, at a news conference held by the State Council's Information Office.

The first seven articles on the interpretation list the criteria for conviction and sentencing on the seven major IPR violations stipulated in China's Criminal Law. They are: counterfeiting registered trademarks, selling counterfeit trademarks, illegally producing or selling registered trade marks, violating copyrights, forging patents, breaching business secrets and selling pirated products.

These articles aim to redress the complaints that the legislation is short on guidelines and applicability because it is made up of general principles only, said Cao.

The new interpretation has lowered the threshold of the financial gauge by which a violator may be punished. When a business brings in a minimum of 50,000 yuan (US$6,024) in revenue or 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) in illegal gains from selling counterfeit goods or infringing on copyrights, it will be eligible for criminal penalties.

Compared with the previous standard of 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) to 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) as a minimum, the harsher guidelines are expected to deal a heavier blow, said Zhang Geng, deputy-procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

The offense of selling counterfeits with a volume of lesser than 50,000 yuan (US$6,024) will be punished through administrative means, said Cao. China has a dual system of judicial and administrative protection when it comes to IPR.

Under the new interpretation, offenders who knowingly sell fake trade-marked goods will receive a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum of seven years, once the sales volume exceeds 250,000 yuan (US$30,000).

The interpretation also said one is an accomplice if he/she knowingly provides various conveniences or acts as an import/export agent for someone who carried out the crime of IPR infringements.

"Giving 'help providers' the same criminal punishment will definitely strengthen the efforts of cracking down on IPR violations," said Cao Jianming, Vice-President of the Supreme People's Court.

In the new interpretation online piracy is seen as copyright infringement and those who violate the law will be prosecuted accordingly.

The interpretation also set sentence criteria on CD, VCD and software piracies. Now a person who copies literature, music, movie, TV programs and software in more than 5,000 CDs or VCDs without the permission from the copyright owners will be sentencedin prison for three to seven years.

China handles 1,710 IPR violations over past four years

From January 2002 to October 2004, China's courts had concluded 2,171 cases related to produce and sell fake products, most of whom also involved IPR infringements, according to the statistics provided by the Supreme People's Court.

"The figure demonstrated that China had strengthened efforts to crack down on IPR infringement issues, since it entered the World Trade Organization (WTO)," said Cao Jianming.

Zhang Geng said the SPP also intensified crack down on IPR violations. From 2000 to November 2004, all levels of People's Procuratorates approved 2,462 arrests in 1,539 criminal cases involving infringing on intellectual property, and 2,491 persons in 1,500 cases were initiated public prosecution.

By People's Daily Online