SHENZHEN will tighten its punishment for intentional infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR) and has clarified six categories of serious cases of intentional intellectual property infringement, Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday.
The amendment to the city’s IPR protection regulations was adopted at the 42nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the Sixth Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress on Tuesday and shall come into force on the date of promulgation.
On the basis of national laws, and in light of the actual situation in Shenzhen, the amendment says that heavier punishment related to the six types of serious cases of intentional intellectual property infringement should be given within the range of punitive damages stipulated by the law.
The amendment also makes it clear that the court can hear design cases and some utility model cases in a centralized way, so as to improve the trial efficiency of patent infringement disputes.
The amendment says that the court may order the other party to provide relevant evidence, if the party claiming the right has tried their best to provide evidence and can provide preliminary evidence that the other party holds relevant evidence.
In order to ease the pressure on trial of intellectual property cases and improve the quality and efficiency of the trial, the amendments specify that the Municipal Intermediate People’s Court may be staffed with technical investigators to provide professional support for the trial of intellectual property cases.