The Information Office of the Supreme People's Court said on April 19 in Shanghai that the people's courts at all levels have further strengthened their crackdown on criminals, achieving evident results after the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Explanation on Several Issues Concerning the Concrete Applied Laws in Dealing with Criminal Cases Violating Intellectual Property Rights'' since the end of 2004, reports the Xinhua News Agency.

The judicial explanation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate indicates China has lowered the "threshold'' for punishing criminals when they infringe the intellectual property rights, showing more powerful in fighting against the illegal activities in violation of the intellectual property rights. It is learned that all the courts of the country received 759 criminal cases involving the infringement of the intellectual property rights, production and sales of counterfeit or inferior quality goods as well as illegal management in the first three months of this year, up 18.9 per cent over the same period of last year. In the judicial practices, many criminals violating the intellectual property rights are sentenced finally for illegal management crimes or the crimes in producing and selling counterfeit or inferior quality goods. Of the above-mentioned criminal cases a considerably part of the cases were the ones infringing the intellectual property rights.

The Supreme People's Court expressed that the people's courts at all levels have intensified the legal protection of the intellectual property rights in many ways since the beginning of this year. First of all, the understanding of the importance in handling crime cases infringing the intellectual property rights has been improved constantly to guarantee the correct handling of the cases efficiently with high quality. Secondly, organize education and training actively so as to raise the professional knowledge and case-handling levels of the judges. Moreover, further strengthen law publicity in order to expand judgment results. Meanwhile, the Supreme People's Court will also regard the judicial protection question of the intellectual property rights as the key research subject of this year.

The reporter has learned that the Supreme People's Court is continuously strengthening supervision and guidance of the people's courts at all levels in handling the criminal cases infringing the intellectual property rights. The Supreme People's Court has set up a system to supervise the handling of heavy criminal cases infringing intellectual property rights. As for the important cases uncovered in the "Mountain Hawk'' action, they should be registered, chased, supervised and handled in time in order to punish the criminals according to law. In addition, the Supreme People's Court has also strengthened its cooperation with the relevant departments to make joint efforts to punish the criminals infringing the intellectual property rights according to the law. The courts at all levels have closely cooperated with the public security and procuratorial departments at all levels, placing emphasis on the "mountain hawk'' action. When there is indictment, the case will be dealt with in time in accordance with the law. Considering the features that the civil torts and criminal acts are easily mixed up in the cases infringing the intellectual property rights, the people's courts at all levels should pay special attention to distinguishing the crimes in trying and pay attention to communicating and coordinating with the relevant administrative law enforcement departments. When finding unsuitable handling by related departments, the courts at all levels should propose judicial suggestions in time.

By People's Daily Online