How does the law provide for penalties for trademark infringement
There are three aspects of punishment for trademark infringement, namely civil Liability, administrative liability, criminal liability.
1. Civil liability
Trademark infringement is a special civil infringement If you commit any act, you shall bear civil infringement liability in accordance with the Civil Law, Trademark Law and relevant provisions. Article 118 of the General Principles of Civil Law of the People’s Republic of my country stipulates that citizens and legal persons who have their copyright (copyright), patent rights, trademark rights, discovery rights, invention rights, and other scientific and technological achievements rights infringed upon by plagiarism, alteration, counterfeiting, etc. have the right to request that the infringement be stopped and the rights removed. impact and compensation for losses. At the same time, Article 39 of the Trademark Law stipulates that the infringed party may request the infringer to immediately stop the infringement and compensate the infringed party for its losses. Specifically, there are several ways to assume responsibility:
(1) Stop the infringement. As long as the trademark right still exists, as long as the infringement actually exists, regardless of whether the infringement causes actual property losses to the trademark owner, regardless of the duration or form of the infringement, the infringer is required to immediately stop his infringement. Stop infringement means stopping to produce or sell infringing products, stop manufacturing or selling other people's registered trademarks, stop using the same or similar trademarks as other people's registered trademarks on the same or similar goods, and stop continuing to provide various services for infringement. Convenience conditions, etc.
(2) Eliminate the impact. If a trademark owner suffers damage to goodwill due to infringement, he has the right to require the infringer to eliminate the impact and restore his reputation within the scope of the impact of the infringement by publishing it in newspapers or other means. In practice, the infringed party can also make a public statement in newspapers and other news media to clarify the truth of the infringement, and the cost shall be borne by the infringer.
(3) Damages. If a trademark owner suffers property losses and loss of goodwill due to infringement, he or she has the right to demand economic compensation. The amount of compensation shall be the profits made by the infringer due to the infringement during the infringement period (the profit part of the loss costs and taxes), or the infringed party shall The losses suffered due to infringement during the period of infringement (the profit of each product multiplied by the total reduced sales volume)and), the infringed party has the right to choose the method for calculating the amount of compensation.
2. Administrative Penalties
According to relevant regulations on trademarks, for trademark For infringement, the infringed party may request handling from the industrial and commercial administration department at or above the county level, and the industrial and commercial administration department has the right to take the following handling measures:
(1) Order immediately Stop sales;
(2) Receive invitations and destroy infringing trademarks;
(3) Eliminate Infringing trademarks on existing goods;
(4) Seizing molds, printing plates or other crime tools that are directly used for trademark infringement;
(5) If the first four measures are insufficient to stop the infringement, or if the infringement is difficult to separate from the goods, order and supervise the destruction of the infringing goods;
(6) Depending on the circumstances, a fine of less than 5% of the illegal business revenue or less than five times of the profits obtained from the infringement may be imposed. The directly responsible person of an entity that infringes upon the exclusive right to use a registered trademark may be fined not more than 10,000 yuan depending on the circumstances.
In practice, there are different approaches to how to calculate the illegal business volume of products that infringe the exclusive rights of others’ registered trademarks. The question is whether the value of the purchased but unsold goods that infringe on the exclusive rights of others’ trademarks should be included in the scope of illegal business. We believe that the illegal business here should be broad. The purchase and sale of goods is of great significance to dealers. It is said that it is an inseparable business activity that can only be sold by purchasing. The purpose of purchasing is to sell and make huge profits. Therefore, the value of part of the goods purchased and then sold should be included in the illegal business volume. The specific calculation method is as follows: 1. If all the goods have been sold, the total sales amount shall be the illegal business volume; 2. If the goods have not been sold, the total purchase price shall be the illegal business volume; 3. If the goods have been partially sold, the part that has been sold shall be the illegal business volume. The sum of sales plus the purchase price of the unsold portion is illegal business revenue.
3. Criminal liability for the crime of counterfeiting trademarks
Registration by impersonating another person Trademark is a serious trademark infringement. Anyone can complain and report to the industrial and commercial administration or the People's Procuratorate; for counterfeiting other people's registered trademarks, the circumstances are serious and constitute a crime.If a crime is committed, in addition to compensating the infringer for the damage, he will be held criminally responsible in accordance with the law. The crime of counterfeiting trademarks will be investigated by the People's Procuratorate and prosecuted in the People's Court. For a period of time, a large number of counterfeitings of other people's registered trademarks have appeared in my country's economic life. High-priced and low-quality counterfeit goods have flooded the market, which has greatly disrupted the normal social and economic order and harmed the interests of consumers. In view of this, Article 40 of my country's Trademark Law specifically stipulates the crime of counterfeiting trademarks, and the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has issued the "Supplementary Provisions on Punishing the Crime of Counterfeiting Registered Trademarks" to prevent and punish various counterfeit trademarks. Crime provides a powerful legal weapon.
(1) The constitution of the crime of counterfeiting trademarks
There are four elements that constitute the crime of counterfeiting trademarks : 1) The object of the crime is a complex object, which not only infringes on the exclusive rights of others to register trademarks, but also infringes on national trademark management activities; 2) The objective aspect of the crime is the implementation of counterfeit trademarks and related acts prohibited by law and the circumstances are serious; 3) The subjective aspect of the crime is intentionality. Unintentional crimes do not constitute this crime; 4. The subjects of the crime are enterprises, institutions and their relevant personnel and individual industrial and commercial persons (including individuals without business licenses).
(2) The manifestations of the crime of counterfeiting trademarks
The objective behaviors of the crime of counterfeiting trademarks include the following Three types:
Using the same trademark as the registered trademark on the same product without the permission of the registered trademark owner;
Shifting or unauthorized manufacturing of registered trademarks of others or selling inferior or unauthorized registered trademarks;
Selling knowingly counterfeit registered trademarks Products of.
(3) The distinction between the crime of counterfeiting trademarks and general trademark infringements should be clearly defined
General Trademark infringement refers to those infringements that are quickly stopped once discovered, have not yet caused serious consequences, or are not harmful. The crime of counterfeiting trademarks must be committed when the act of counterfeiting trademarks is carried out and the circumstances are serious. The so-called serious circumstances refer to cases where the counterfeit product has caused personal injury, where the counterfeiter has repeatedly refused to obey, where the scale of counterfeiting is large and lasts for a long time, where the amount of illegal profits gained from counterfeiting is relatively large, where the means of counterfeiting are egregious, and where the counterfeiting has caused serious consequences. The counterfeiters have formed gangs or groups that have had a negative impact domestically and internationally. They manufacture or sell other people’s registered trademarks without authorization in large quantities, make huge profits, use bad methods, and fail to teach after repeated attempts.Changes, extremely bad effects, etc.
(4) Criminal liability for the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks
According to relevant provisions of the law, the crime of counterfeiting trademarks The following criminal liabilities shall be borne according to the specific circumstances:
Using the same trademark and inferior goods as the registered trademark on the same goods without the permission of the registered trademark owner. Whoever manufactures other people's registered trademarks without authorization or sells inferior or unauthorized registered trademarks, and the amount of illegal income is relatively large, or there are other serious circumstances, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, or criminal detention, and may be concurrently or solely fined; If the amount of illegal income is huge, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined.
A "two-punishment system" will be implemented for enterprises and institutions that commit crimes of counterfeiting trademarks. On the one hand, the de facto unit of the enterprise is sentenced to a fine, and on the other hand, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel are held criminally responsible in accordance with regulations.
Pursuing criminal liability for the crime of trademark counterfeiting in accordance with the law does not exempt them from civil liability to compensate the infringed party for their losses.
There are three aspects of punishment for trademark infringement, namely civil liability, administrative liability, and criminal liability. There is a detailed introduction in the article, I hope it can help you. The above content is the relevant answers. If you have other legal questions, you can consult the relevant lawyers on the Legal Savior Network.
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