Collecting Evidence For Compensation In Trademark Infringement Litigation

Current Chinese trademark law provides that the compensation shall be assessed based on the losses the right holder has suffered, the profits the infringer has earned or the trademark license fees. If the infringement is in bad faith and severe, the court could impose on the infringers the punitive compensation which could be not more than five times of the amount determined in the aforesaid method. The statutory compensation is also covered in this law, and it was raised from RMB 3 million to RMB 5 million in the latest amendment which came into effect last year.

In practice, trademark proprietors may run into difficulties while collecting direct evidence proving the losses they suffered, the profit infringers gained or the trademark license fees, but trademark proprietors could still expect statutory compensation granted by court. Claiming for statutory compensation does not mean without burden to collect evidence, on the contrary, it is quite necessary to submit