Recently, the Supreme People's Court ("SPC") issued the Opinions on Intensifying Punishment for the Intellectual Property Rights Infringement According to Law (the "Opinions").

The Opinions centralize on act preservation, evidence preservation, obstruction to the burden of proof, cessation of infringement, punitive damages and other contents. The Opinions specify that, if an obligee applies for the pre-judgment on the cessation of infringement and for act preservation in a lawsuit involving intellectual property rights infringement, the court shall timely conduct examinations for both applications in accordance with the law. Where an alleged infringer arbitrarily damages or transfers any allegedly infringing product or any other evidence for which any preservation measure has been taken, making any infringement fact impossible to be ascertained, the court may presume that the obligee’s claim of issues to be proven under the said evidence is tenable. The Opinions specify that, except for special circumstances, counterfeit and pirated commodities as well as materials and tools primarily used to produce or manufacture such commodities shall be destroyed as per the request of an obligee. Any person, primarily engaging in the business of the intellectual property rights infringement, counterfeiting any registered trademark of commodities such as rescue and relief work and epidemic prevention supplies in a specific period or infringing upon any intellectual property right again and therefore constituting a crime after receiving administrative punishment for the intellectual property right infringement, shall be subject to heavier punishment according to the law, and will generally not be granted with probation.

(Source: Supreme People’s Court)