China Mulls Heavier Criminal Penalties For IPR Infringements

The recently-passed Amendment XI to its Criminal will provide stricter punishment for intellectual property crimes from March 2021.

The maximum prison term for trademark and copyright infringements will be increased from seven years to 10 years.

Whoever, without permission of the owner of a registered trademark, uses a trademark which is identical to the registered one on the same kind of commodities or services shall, if the circumstances are especially serious, be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years and shall also be fined.

Convicted criminals who knowingly sell commodities bearing counterfeit registered trademarks, who forge or make representations of registered trademarks without authorization or sell such representations shall be jailed for 3-10 years and fined, if the amount of sale is huge or if the circumstances are especially serious.