Trademark infringement crime

Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 57: It stipulates the circumstances of infringing on the exclusive right to use a registered trademark, including using a trademark identical to a registered trademark on the same goods without the permission of the trademark registrant; using a trademark similar to a registered trademark on the same goods or using a trademark identical or similar to a registered trademark on similar goods without the permission of the trademark registrant, which is likely to cause confusion, etc.

Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 213: Crime of Counterfeiting a Registered Trademark: Whoever uses a trademark identical to a registered trademark on the same goods or services without the permission of the owner of the registered trademark, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the circumstances are especially serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined.

Article 214: Crime of Selling Goods with Counterfeited Registered Trademarks: Whoever sells goods that he knows bear counterfeited registered trademarks, if the amount of illegal gains is relatively large or if there are other serious circumstances, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the amount of illegal gains is huge or if there are other especially serious circumstances, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined.

Article 215: Crime of Illegally Manufacturing or Selling Illegally Manufactured Registered Trademark Symbols: Whoever forges or manufactures without authorization registered trademark symbols of others or sells registered trademark symbols that are forged or manufactured without authorization, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the circumstances are especially serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined.

Trademark infringement crime

Judicial Interpretations

Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Disputes over Trademarks: It explains and stipulates some specific issues in civil disputes over trademark infringement cases, such as the principles for determining the identity or similarity of trademarks and the determination of acts that cause other damages to the exclusive right to use trademarks of others.

Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringing Intellectual Property Rights: It makes specific provisions on the conviction and sentencing standards for criminal cases of infringing intellectual property rights. For example, whoever uses a trademark identical to a registered trademark on the same goods without the permission of the owner of the registered trademark, if the amount of illegal business operations is 50,000 yuan or more or the amount of illegal gains is 30,000 yuan or more, falls under the category of "serious circumstances" as stipulated in Article 213 of the Criminal Law; if the amount of illegal business operations is 250,000 yuan or more or the amount of illegal gains is 150,000 yuan or more, it falls under the category of "especially serious circumstances".