By Jiao Hongbin King & Wood’s Intellectual Property Group

In December 2011, the Deputy Director of the State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C. expressed that China would in the near future promote amendments to the Patent Law, the Trademark Law and the Copyright Law of the P.R.C. as well as associated regulations, increase the amount of fines, and conduct research on applying punitive damage awards to profit-generating intentional infringement and counterfeiting acts.  This suggests that punitive damage awards may be adopted into China’s intellectual property (IP) protection framework.

Liability for infringement can be compensatory or punitive, depending on the purpose of the compensation to be granted.  According to the current Patent Law, Trademark Law and Copyright Law of the P.R.C., the amount of compensation is determined by the basis of compensation and is calculated in accordance with the actual losses suffered by the rights owner or the benefits obtained by the infringer (and by reference to the reasonable multiples of the royalties in a patent infringement case), and while neither of the two elements could be determined, a People’s Court can award a statutory compensation amount within the scope provided by the law.Continue Reading Intellectual Property Cases in China May Result in Punitive Damage Awards

作者:矫鸿彬 金杜知识产权

2011年12月,中国国家知识产权局副局长贺化在全国外商机构保护知识产权座谈会上表示,今后一段时期,中国将加快修订有关法律法规和规章,将推进专利法、商标法、著作权法等法律及配套法规的修改,提高罚款数额,研究引入对营利性故意侵权和假冒伪劣行为的惩罚性赔偿制度。这表明,惩罚性赔偿制度将有可能被引入中国的知识产权保护体系中。

从赔偿的目的来看,侵权赔偿责任可以分为补偿性责任和惩罚性责任。根据中国现行的专利法、商标法和著作权法的规定,侵权赔偿数额的确定是以补偿性为原则,按照权利人所受到的实际损失或者侵权人所获得的利益确定(专利侵权案件中还可以参照专利许可使用费的倍数合理确定),二者均难以确定的情况下,则由人民法院在法律规定的范围内确定法定赔偿数额。Continue Reading 中国知识产权保护将可能引入惩罚性赔偿制度