In China, administrative and criminal fines can be imposed
against IP infringement. However, the fines shall be submitted to
the National Treasury Administration. If the victims wish to obtain
damages, usually they need to file separate lawsuits.
Damages shall be granted on the basis of the victims'
actual loss or the infringers' actual profit. Where the loss
or profit is difficult to determine, the courts may discreetly
grant statutory damages. In many cases low damages and fines did
not deter infringers, which gave rise to rampant IP infringement
and disappointed local and international right owners alike.
The situation began to change from May 1, 2014, when punitive
triple damages were provided against severe bad-faith infringement
in China's third amendment of the Trademark Law. In the
fourth amendment, effective from November 1, 2019, the maximum
punitive damage was lifted to five times the plaintiff's
loss/the defendant's profit arising from infringement.
