On January 18, 2023 China’s Supreme People’s Court and China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate released the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Intellectual Property Infringement (Draft for comments) (关于办理侵犯知识产权刑事案件适用法律若干问题的解释（征求意见稿)). The Interpretation mainly sets thresholds for determining criminal prosecution, e.g., when there are “serious circumstances” in trademark infringement. The Interpretation will replace earlier Interpretations including the 2020 Interpretation.
Category: Trademarks
China’s National Intellectual Property Administration Issues Draft Amendment to the Trademark Law for Comment to Reduce Malicious Trademark Registration
On January 13, 2023, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Draft Amendment to the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China (Draft for Comment) (中华人民共和国商标法修订草案（征求意见稿)). The Draft expands the Trademark Law to 10 chapters and 101 articles. Among them, 23 new articles were added, 6 new articles were split from existing articles, 45 articles were substantially revised, and 27 existing articles were maintained. Many of the amendments focus on reducing malicious registrations of trademarks and also introduces …
China’s Supreme People’s Court Releases Second Batch of Typical Civil Code Cases Including Piercing the Corporate Veil in a Trademark/Unfair Competition Case
On January 12, 2023, China’s Supreme People’s Court released the Typical Cases of People’s Courts Implementing the Civil Code (Second Batch) (人民法院贯彻实施民法典典型案例（第二批)). The Second Batch comprises 16 cases including one intellectual property case: Wenjian Co., Ltd. v. Suzhou Wenjian Company, a packaging company and Hua, personally (dispute over trademark infringement and unfair competition). In this case, the Court “pierced the corporate veil” in effect by holding Hua jointly and severally liable with the companies as he was the controlling shareholder …
5-Month Criminal Detention Sentence for Legal Representative of Chinese IP Agency for Forging TM Documents
On January 5, 2023, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced an administrative penalty decision for a Chongqing, China intellectual property agency. The IP Agency was retained to file trademark applications but instead of filing forged the “Notice of Acceptance of Trademark Registration Application” by modifying the applicant, application address, etc. to that of the client and then transmitted it to the client. The legal representative of the agency was sentenced to 5 months of criminal detention and fined …