Recently, Supreme People's Procuratorate and Ministry of Public Security jointly issued "Provisions of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security on Filing and Prosecution of Criminal Cases Governed by Public Security Authorities (II)" (hereinafter referred to as "Provisions (II)"). The provisions further provide for filing and prosecuting of intellectual property criminal cases. In the future, the following cases will be prosecuted: cases of passing-off of 2 patents owned by others, cases of more than 100,000 RMB yuan llegal business value, or cases of 50,000RMB yuan illegal gains.
According to the Provisions (II), cases of passing-off of patent should be filed and prosecuted when any of the following conditions is met: 1. where the passing-off of another’s patent occurs and the illegal business value is more than 200,000RMB yuan or illegal gain is more than 100,000 RMB yuan; 2. where it has caused a direct economic damage of more than 500,000 RMB yuan for the patentee; 3. where 2 of others’ patents are passed off, and the illegal business is more than 100,000RMB yuan or the illegal gain is more than 50,000RMB yuan; 4. where there are other serious situations
With regard to the provisions relating to trade secret, cases should be filed and prosecuted if the following condition is met: 1. where the owner of the trade secret suffers a loss of more than 500,00RMB yuan; 2. where the illegal gain is more than 500,000RMB yuan; 3. where the owner of the trade secret is in bankruptcy due to the infringing activites of the trade secret; 4. where there are other situations in which the owner of the trade secret suffers a huge loss.
With regard to the provisions relating to trademark, the provisions II provide the following situations where the cases of trademark cases should be filed and prosecuted: 1. where, without the authorization of the trademark owner, the counterfeit mark is used in the identical goods covered by the registered trademark; 2. where the illegal business value is more than 50,000 RMB yuan or the illegal gain is more than 30,000RMB yuan; 3. where more than 2 marks are counterfeited and the illegal business value is more than 30, 000RMB yuan or the illegal gain is more than 20, 000RMB yuan. 4. where there are other serious situations.
