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Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, China

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Details Details Year of Version 1997 Dates Entry into force: October 1, 1997 Adopted: March 14, 1997 Type of Text IP-related Laws Subject Matter Enforcement of IP and Related Laws, Other Notes The notification by China to the WTO under Article 63.2 of TRIPS states:
'Articles 213-220 provide for the crimes of infringing intellectual property rights.'

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Main Text(s) Related Text(s)
Main text(s) Main text(s) Chinese 中华人民共和国刑法         English Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China        

Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (Provisions of Intellectual property Crime)

Adopted by the Second Session of the Fifth National People's Congress on July 1, 1979 and amended by the Fifth Session of the Eighth National People's Congress

on March 14, 1997

Section 7 Crime of Intellectual Property Rights

Article 213 Using an identical trademark on the same merchandise without permission of its registered owner shall, if the case is of a serious nature, be punished with imprisonment or criminal detention of less than three years, with a fine, or a separately imposed fine; for cases of a more serious nature, with imprisonment of over three years and less than seven years, and with fine.

Article 214 Knowingly selling merchandise under a faked trademark with a relatively large sales volume shall be punished with imprisonment or criminal detention of less than three years, with a fine or a separately imposed fine; in cases involving a large sales volume, with imprisonment of more than three years but less than seven years, and with fine.

Article 215 Forging or manufacturing without authority or selling or manufacturing without authority other's registered trademarks or identifications shall, for cases of a serious nature, be punished with imprisonment or criminal detention, or restriction for less than three years, with a fine or a separately imposed fine; for cases of a especially serious nature, with imprisonment of over three years and less than seven years, and with fine.

Article 216 Whoever counterfeits other people's patents, and when the circumstances are serious, is to be sentenced to not more than three years of fixed-term imprisonment, criminal detention, and may in addition or exclusively be sentenced to a fine.

Article 217 Whoever, for the purpose of reaping profits, has committed one of the following acts of copyright infringement and gains a fairly large amount of illicit income, or when there are other serious circumstances, is to be sentenced to not more than three years of fixed-term imprisonment, criminal detention, and may in addition or exclusively be sentenced to a fine; when the amount of the illicit income is huge or when there are other particularly serious circumstances, he is to be sentenced to not less than three years and not more than seven years of fixed-term imprisonment and a fine:

(1) copy and distribute written, musical, movie, televised, and video works; computer software; and other works without the permission of their copyrighters;

(2) publish books whose copyrights are exclusively owned by others;

(3) duplicate and distribute audiovisual works without the permission of their producers;

(4) produce and sell artistic works bearing fake signatures of others.

Article 218 Whoever, for the purpose of reaping profits, knowingly sells the duplicate works described in Article 217 of this Law, and gains a huge amount of illicit income, is to be sentenced to not more than three years of fixed-term imprisonment, criminal detention, and may in addition or exclusively be sentenced to a fine.

Article 219 Whoever engages in one of the following activities which encroaches upon commercial secrets and brings significant losses to persons having the rights to the commercial secrets is to be sentenced to not more than three years of fixed-term imprisonment, criminal detention, and may in addition or exclusively be sentenced to a fine; or is to be sentenced to not less than three years and not more than seven years of fixed-term imprisonment and a fine, if he causes particularly serious consequences:

(1) acquire a rightful owner's commercial secrets via theft, lure by promise of gain, threat, or other improper means;

(2) disclose, use, or allow others to use a rightful owner's commercial secrets which are acquired through the aforementioned means;

(3) disclose, use, or allow others to use, in violation of the agreement with the rightful owner or the rightful owner's request of keeping the commercial secrets, the commercial secrets he is holding.

Whoever acquires, uses, or discloses other people's commercial secrets, when he knows or should know that these commercial secrets are acquired through the aforementioned means, is regarded as an encroachment upon commercial secrets. The commercial secrets referred to in this article are technical information and operation information that are unknown to the public, can bring economic profits to their rightful owners, are functional, and are kept as secrets by their rightful owners. The rightful owners referred to in this Article are owners of the commercial secrets and users who have the permission of the owners.

Article 220 When a unit commits the crimes stated in Article 213 through Article 219, it is to be sentenced to a fine; its directly responsible person in charge and other personnel of direct responsibility should be punished in accordance with the stipulations respectively stated in these Articles of this section.


第七节 侵犯知识产权罪

第二百一十三条 【假冒注册商标罪】未经注册商标所有人 许可,在同一种商品上使用与其注册商标相同的商标,情节严重的,处三年以下有期徒刑或者拘役,并处或者单处罚金;情节特别严重的,处三年以上七年以下有期 徒刑,并处罚金。

第二百一十四条 【销售假冒注册商标的商品罪】销售明知是假冒注册商标的商品,销售金额数额较大的,处三年以下有期徒刑或者拘役,并处或者单处罚金;销售金额数额巨大的, 处三年以上七年以下有期徒刑,并处罚金。

第二百一 十五条 【非法制造、销售非法制造的注册商标标识罪】伪造、擅自制造他人注册商标标识或者销售伪造、擅自制造的注册商标标识,情节 严重的,处三年以下有期徒刑、拘役或者管制,并处或者单处罚金;情节特别严重的,处三年以上七年以下有期徒刑,并处罚金。

第二百一十六条 【假冒专利罪】假冒他人专利,情节严重 的,处三年以下有期徒刑或者拘役,并处或者单处罚金。

第二百一十七条 【侵犯著作权罪】以营利为目的,有下列侵犯著作权情形之一,违法所得数额较大或者有其他严重情节的,处三年以下 有期徒刑或者拘役,并处或者单处罚金;违法所得数额巨大或者有其他特别严重情节的,处三年以上七年以下有期徒刑,并处罚金: (一)未经著作权 人许可,复制发行其文字作品、音乐、电影、电视、录像作品、计算机软件及其他作品的; (二)出版他人享有专有出版权的图书的; (三)未经录音录像制作者许可,复制发行其制作的录音录像的; (四)制作、出售假冒他人署名的美术作品的。

第二百一十八条 【销售侵权复制品罪】以营利为目的,销 售明知是本法第二百一十七条规定的侵权复制品,违法所得数额巨大的,处三年以下有期徒刑或者拘役,并处或者单处罚金。

第二百一十九条 【侵犯商业秘密罪】有下列侵犯商业秘密 行为之一,给商业秘密的权利人造成重大损失的,处三年以下有期徒刑或者拘役,并处或者单处罚金;造成特别严重后果的,处三年以上七年以下有期徒刑,并处罚 金: (一)以盗窃、利诱、胁迫或者其他不正当手段获取权利人的商业秘密的; (二)披露、使用或者允许他人使用以前项手段获取的权 利人的商业秘密的; (三)违反约定或者违反权利人有关保守商业秘密的要求,披露、使用或者允许他人使用其所掌握的商业秘密的。 知或者应知前款所列行为,获取、使用或者披露他人的商业秘密的,以侵犯商业秘密论。 本条所称商业秘密,是指不为公众所知悉,能为权利人带来经 济利益,具有实用性并经权利人采取保密措施的技术信息和经营信息。 本条所称权利人,是指商业秘密的所有人和经商业秘密所有人许可的商业秘密使 用人。

第二百二十条 【单 位犯侵犯知识产权罪的处罚规定】单位犯本节第二百一十三条至第二百一十九条规定之罪的,对单位判处罚金,并对其直接负责的主管人员和其他直接责任人员,依 照本节各该条的规定处罚。


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IP/N/1/CHN/1
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WIPO Lex No. CN014