The Supreme Procuratorate formulated and issued the "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening the Intellectual Property Prosecution Work in the New Era"

Content: In 2022, the highest level inspection will strengthen top-level design and continue to promote the centralized and unified performance of intellectual property inspections. In March, the "Opinions of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Comprehensively Strengthening the Intellectual Property Prosecution Work in the New Era" was released, proposing 21 contents from four aspects, clarifying the guiding ideology, basic principles, goals, tasks, and specific measures for the current and future period of intellectual property prosecution work. The Opinion requires all provincial-level courts to strengthen coordination, promote the construction of intellectual property prosecution business institutions and case handling organizations according to the needs of judicial practice, and scientifically establish professional case handling teams. Each provincial-level hospital formulates specific local plans to promote the construction of institutional mechanisms. As of the end of 2022, a total of 29 provincial procuratorates in China have established intellectual property prosecution departments, equipped with professional personnel, to carry out comprehensive duties.

Link: Supreme Court Prosecutors Hold a Press Conference to Strengthen Intellectual Property Prosecutorial Services in the New Era to Ensure Innovation Driven Development

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The "Mona Lisa" trademark administrative dispute case protested by the Supreme People's Procuratorate was supported by retrial

Content: The trademark "M MONALISA and its drawings" (hereinafter referred to as the "Mona Lisa" trademark) is applied for registration on Class 11 "lavatory (flush toilet), toilet" and other goods. Prior to this, the trademark "Mona Lisa Mona Lisa" applied for registration by others has been approved to be registered on Class 11 "bathroom appliances" and other goods. The China National Intellectual Property Administration ruled that the "Mona Lisa" trademark and the "Mona Lisa Mona Lisa" trademark in the "toilet (flush toilet), toilet" goods constitute similar trademarks used in similar goods, and the "Mona Lisa" trademark was revoked. In the administrative litigation stage, the court held that the "Mona Lisa" trademark and the "Mona Lisa" trademark registered earlier by others did not constitute similar trademarks, and decided to revoke the ruling of the China National Intellectual Property Administration. After examination, the Supreme People's Procuratorate held that the "Mona Lisa" trademark and the previously registered "Mona Lisa Mona Lisa" trademark constituted similar trademarks used on similar goods. The case met the conditions for protest and filed a protest to the Supreme Court according to law. The Supreme Court ordered the Beijing Higher People's Court to retrial the case and ultimately revoked the original first and second instance judgments. The Supreme Court's protest received support from a retrial.

This case is the first administrative litigation supervision case since the establishment of the Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate for Intellectual Property Rights to file a protest and successfully change the verdict.

In 2022, the national procuratorial organs handled a total of 937 cases of intellectual property civil and administrative litigation supervision, a year-on-year increase of 72.2%.

Link: Top 10 Legal Supervision Cases for 2022; The "Mona Lisa" trademark dispute case ended at the end of 10 years

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Build a collaborative protection system, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the China National Intellectual Property Administration countersigned the Opinions on Strengthening the Collaborative Protection of Intellectual Property, put forward 17 specific measures, and jointly listed and supervised major infringement and piracy cases with the National Copyright Administration and other departments

Content: On April 25, 2022, on the eve of the 22nd World Intellectual Property Day, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the China National Intellectual Property Administration jointly discussed how to strengthen the collaborative protection of intellectual property, countersigned the Opinions on Strengthening the Collaborative Protection of Intellectual Property, and promoted the construction of a working pattern of "strict protection, large protection, rapid protection, and simultaneous protection". The Opinion consists of nine parts and 17 articles, promoting further deepening of law enforcement and judicial cooperation, establishing a normalized liaison mechanism, establishing and improving information sharing mechanisms, strengthening business support, increasing cooperation in case handling, strengthening talent exchange and training, deepening research cooperation, strengthening publicity cooperation and international cooperation, establishing reward and punishment mechanisms, and constructing a collaborative protection system for intellectual property rights. In 2022, the Supreme Procuratorate, together with the National Copyright Administration and other departments, jointly supervised 95 major infringement and piracy cases, promoted case handling, and strengthened guidance on handling cases.

Links: strict protection, large protection, fast protection, and simultaneous protection

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The Beijing procuratorial organs have cracked down on intellectual property infringement crimes throughout the entire chain, and the first criminal case of intellectual property infringement at the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in China has been sentenced

Content: From November to December 2021, Wei Mousheng, Wei Mouze, and Wei Moufei sold counterfeit Olympic mascot dolls, keychains, and other goods with the registered trademark of the "Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee" through online platforms in Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province. After being sued by the People's Procuratorate of Shijingshan District, Beijing, on January 25, 2022, Wei Mousheng and three others were sentenced to criminal penalties and fines by the court for selling counterfeit registered trademarks. In combination with the case handling, the procuratorial organ, together with the Union City Public Security Bureau, the Municipal Intellectual Property Office and other relevant departments, urged the involved network platform and the comprehensive market to remove infringing goods from the shelves and make rectification, so as to standardize the market order.

Link: Top 10 Legal Supervision Cases for 2022

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The Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the China National Intellectual Property Administration and other departments, issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Connection of Intellectual Property Appraisal

Content: Appraisal opinions are an important type of evidence in the judicial activities of intellectual property law enforcement, and the importance of professional and technical fact determination in handling cases, especially in difficult and complex cases, is increasingly prominent. On November 22, 2022, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the China National Intellectual Property Administration and other departments, issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Linkage of Intellectual Property Appraisal, clarifying the definition, nature, specific fields, linkage mechanism and other matters of intellectual property appraisal, improving the working system of intellectual property appraisal, and improving the quality and credibility of appraisal.

Link: "Opinions on Strengthening the Connection of Intellectual Property Appraisal Work" Issued

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The Keqiao District Procuratorate of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, has supervised and corrected 62 false litigation cases related to flower shaped copyrights through a big data supervision model, and prosecuted four people for fraud

Content: Since 2008, Zhou and others, the operator of Hangzhou Meisu Copyright Agency Co., Ltd., have illegally induced some business owners in Shaoxing Light Textile City to submit textile pattern designs created by others to the company for copyright registration and entrusted the company to protect their rights. Zhou and others, knowing that the client who came to register the copyright of flower patterns did not have actual copyright, still helped to act as an agent for copyright registration and, under the guise of protecting rights, demanded compensation from relevant business owners through sending lawyer letters, filing lawsuits, and other means. The total amount of fraud exceeded 3.4 million yuan. During the performance of their duties, the procuratorial organs discovered clues to relevant cases. Through the big data search and analysis of the "Smart Supervision System for Civil Judgment Documents", 62 suspected false litigation cases were found. After providing supervision opinions, the court issued a retrial and revised the judgment. Zhou and four others were held criminally responsible for fraud in accordance with the law, and the court convicted and sentenced them all. The main culprit, Zhou, was sentenced to eleven years and six months in prison, and was also fined.

Link: Light textile merchants inexplicably face claims, who has the "crooked idea" of pattern copyright?

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The Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee, the Supreme People's Court, the China National Intellectual Property Administration and other departments, jointly held the first class business training

Content: From September 5 to 9, 2022, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee, the Supreme People's Court, the China National Intellectual Property Administration and other departments, will hold a class business training with the theme of "handling difficult and complex issues in intellectual property cases". Judges, prosecutors, police officers, and key administrative law enforcement professionals in the field of trademarks and copyrights from the frontline of handling cases nationwide participated in the training, gathering consensus on protection, enhancing their ability to perform their duties, enhancing communication and mutual trust, clarifying work directions, and promoting the integration of law enforcement and judicial concepts and standardization.

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The Xiamen procuratorial organ shall hold Yuemou Asset Management Co., Ltd., Liao and others criminally responsible for infringing on trade secrets in accordance with the law, and strictly protect the core technology of the enterprise

Content: From 2017 to March 2019, Liao worked at Xiamen Oumou Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Oumou Company), responsible for equipment procurement acceptance and data organization, and signed a confidentiality agreement with the company. During the process of preparing to resign, Liao stole the natural flavor production technology information of Oumou Company and sold it to Shanghai Yuemou Asset Management Co., Ltd. (referred to as Yuemou Company) after leaving, earning a profit of 82000 yuan. Yuemou Company committed a crime while entrusting other companies to produce non-standard equipment unique to Oumou Company, but has not yet used the aforementioned technical information to produce similar products. After identification, the technical information of the natural flavor production process involved in the case belongs to "technical information that is not known to the public". After evaluation, the value of the ordinary license to use the trade secret is RMB 8.5899 million. After the prosecution by the Xiamen prosecutor's office, the court sentenced Yuemou Company to a fine of 500000 yuan for infringing on trade secrets, and sentenced Liao and four others to imprisonment ranging from two to three years, as well as a fine. On April 22, 2022, the court ruled in the second instance to dismiss the appeal and uphold the original judgment.

Link: How to accurately determine the amount of loss due to the leakage of technology developed independently over four years?

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The Shanghai prosecutor's office has prosecuted Chen Moumou for selling counterfeit hot Maggie brand medical beauty equipment in accordance with the law, maintaining the normal market order of the medical beauty industry, and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of intellectual property rights holders and consumers

Content: The trademark "Image" (Chinese name: Remagi) is an approved trademark registered on products such as "Laser for Facial and Skin Medical and Cosmetic Treatment", and the above trademark is within the validity period of registration. From early 2020 to October 2021, Chen, knowing that beauty instruments, probes and other products sold by others were registered trademarks such as counterfeit images, still purchased and sold them through channels such as WeChat, with a sales amount of over 3.5 million yuan. On July 22, 2022, the Third Branch of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Chen for the crime of selling counterfeit registered trademarks. Chen pleaded guilty and punished, and the procuratorial organ proposed a recommendation for determining the sentence and sentencing. On September 9, 2022, the Third Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai made a first instance judgment, accepting the criminal facts and sentencing suggestions accused by the procuratorial organs. Chen was sentenced to three years and ten months in prison for the crime of selling counterfeit registered trademarks, and was also fined RMB 1 million. The illegal gains withdrawn and the seized counterfeit goods were confiscated.

Link: Sword Again! 10 Cases of Medical Aesthetics Violation and Crime Exposed

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The procuratorial organ of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province has launched the "Experience Materials of the 'Dual Reporting System' for Intellectual Property Criminal Cases", which has been selected as one of the first batch of typical cases in the construction of an intellectual property country

Content: On October 19, 2022, the Office of the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference on the Implementation of the State Council's Intellectual Property Strategy (referred to as the State Council Joint Office) released the first batch of typical cases of building a strong intellectual property country. Among them, the Supreme Procuratorate recommended to the Joint Office of the State Council that the experience materials of the 'dual reporting system' for intellectual property criminal cases submitted by the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate were selected for this batch of typical cases due to their outstanding results. The "dual reporting system" requires intellectual property rights holders to simultaneously submit relevant materials to the same level of people's procuratorate while reporting to the public security organs. By relying on this mechanism, the procuratorial organs effectively connect with the rights holders' rights protection needs, consolidate the evidence foundation of cases, significantly shorten the period of enterprise rights protection, effectively expand rights protection channels, and significantly enhance the sense of judicial fairness.

Link: The Tianfu Prosecutorial Story of the Intellectual Property Power: A Record of the "Double Reporting System" of Intellectual Property Criminal Cases by the Prosecutors in Chengdu, Sichuan Province

Announcement of the first batch of typical cases in the construction of a strong intellectual property country

(Original title: Top 10 Cases of Intellectual Property Prosecutors in 2022)

Source: WeChat of the Supreme People's Procuratorate