Severe punishment for IP rights violators
In order to protect the business environment, people violating intellectual property rights have been punished with severity, Li Shulan, vice president of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court and Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People’s Court said on Monday.
Between January 2018 and August this year, the intellectual property court handled nearly 7,500 civil and administrative cases related to IP while the city’s intermediate court handled nearly 100 criminal cases, authorities revealed.
In 10 cases cited by the two courts compensation reached the maximum amount.
If it is hard to determine the amount of economic losses but they are over the law's compensation limit — 500,000 yuan (US$73,300) — compensation can exceed the limit as appropriate, the authorities said.
“Due to the social harm and malicious intent, the cost of breaking the IP law should be increased,” Li said.
If the infringer refuses to cooperate with the investigation, the court will announce the judgment according to the plaintiff's claim, he added.
In a case last year, Shanghai-based information and technology company Ddianle sued two network technology companies, Xiniuhudong and Changmeng Games.
Ddianle said its Lianwu OL game had been running since 2013. As of 2018, over 43 million people had downloaded it.
In 2016, the other two companies developed a similar game called Dance of Dream, or Menghuan Lianwu in Chinese. The game was called Lianwu as an abbreviation in advertising and over 3 million people played it.
The logo of Dance of Dream (left) and Lianwu OL (right).
Ddianle asked for 3 million yuan compensation but the court approved a figure of 250,000 yuan. Xiniuhudong and Ddianle both appealed the decision.
During an investigation by the intellectual property court, it was difficult to determine the fines because the two companies refused to submit documents about how much money they earned from the game. Finally, the authority ruled that the defendants should pay 3 million yuan to Ddianle.
The court said determining the amount of compensation was difficult. To protect rights and reduce victims’ losses, the court can ask the lawbreaker to stop its infringement as soon as possible before any determination.
“Urging the infringer to pay the penalty and recovering the illegal gains are also important to protect a fair business environment,” said Zhou Yijun, president of a law court of the intermediate court.
