On August 6, China's Supreme People’s Procuratorate released main data on cases handled by procuratorial agencies nationwide for the first half of 2024. The SPP highlighted that the technological advancements, the digital economy, and the cultural and creative industries have led to a surge in complex intellectual property (IP) infringement cases.

For the protection of intellectual property rights, the person in charge of SPP’s case management office introduced that16,000 individuals were implicated in IP infringement cases in the first half of 2024, marking a 21.5% increase compared to the previous year. Among these cases were more than 1,800 individuals involved in trade secret theft and patent counterfeiting, with legal actions taken against crimes related to essential technologies. Procuratorial authorities have comprehensive made use of early intervention and self-initiated supplementary investigation to consolidate the evidence system, respectively handling over 1,000 cases and more than 400 cases of intellectual property rights infringement.

In addition, the procuratorial authorities have deepened coordination with the Intellectual Property Office and other departments, recommending that administrative law enforcement authorities transfer over 140 individuals for criminal offenses involving infringement of intellectual property rights; supervising the filing of cases by the public security authorities in respect of over 440 persons; and proposing procuratorial opinions on administrative penalties in cases where no prosecution was initiated in respect of 600 individuals, accounting for 26.2% of the number of individuals not prosecuted.

From The Paper

August 6th, 2024