New law cracks down on IPR breaches in Pudong

Infringements of intellectual property rights in the Pudong New Area will face tougher penalties from December 1.

A special IPR protection law for Pudong was passed on Thursday in the Shanghai People's Congress, the city's legislature, underscoring the city's commitment to enhancing its business environment.

Individuals and entities that maliciously register trademarks and infringe the rights of others will be fined up to 50,000 yuan (US$7,800) if they have profited from the behavior.

The law for the first time specifies punishment rules for violators of regulations regarding the protection of geographical labeling.

Offenders face fines of up to 250,000 yuan, or up to five times the illegal operational income from a violation which exceeds 50,000 yuan.

Those who offend again within two years after a verdict or notice of administrative punishment on their first violation takes effect face even tougher penalties.

Those who deliberately and severely infringe the intellectual property rights of others face fines of up to 10 million yuan, or 10 times the actual losses of the rights holders and the illegal profits of the offenders.

The new law also enhances the protection of business secrets by stipulating that the court demands parties that infringe business secrets return or destroy anything that stores the secrets in the form of drawings, software and others and to prevent others from making use of them.

And to speed the patent application process for companies in the fields of biomedicine, high-end equipment manufacturing and new generation information technology, the intellectual property rights authorities in Pudong are required to provide preliminary reviews of the documents of the companies.

Earlier this year, the SPC and its standing committee were authorized by the standing committee of the National People's Congress to draft tailor-made laws for Pudong in accordance with the constitution and the basic principles of laws and regulations.