Intellectual property protection is bing dwen dwen’s attention in recent years. It is closely related to computer software and Internet. Even our short life videos and hot spring piers will also be involved in related issues.
During the two sessions of the National People’s Congress this year, the 21st Century Business Herald interviewed Gong Ming, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and a full-time member of the Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. He said that the procuratorial organs will focus on the infringement and counterfeiting in the Internet field and the crime of infringing intellectual property rights in new business forms and new fields, crack down on them according to law and form a deterrent. Further integrate criminal, civil and administrative procuratorial functions, and strengthen comprehensive judicial protection of intellectual property rights.
Gong Ming also responded to the issue of copyright protection in the Internet field. He said that the procuratorial organs will pay close attention, conduct in-depth research, and work with relevant departments to further clarify the standards for the application of the law and protect the legitimate rights and interests of intellectual property rights holders in accordance with the law; For the social governance problems found in handling cases, we should promote and improve them in various ways and strengthen comprehensive governance.
The characteristics of intellectual property crime gangs, industrialization and chain are obvious
21st century: what are the characteristics of current criminal cases of infringement of intellectual property rights, and how do procuratorial organs play their role in handling relevant cases?
Gong Ming: at present, intellectual property infringement cases mainly show four characteristics: first, trademark right is still the main object of infringement. According to statistics, the number of criminal cases of trademark infringement prosecuted by procuratorial organs accounts for about 90% of the total number of criminal cases of intellectual property infringement.
Second, there has been a substantial increase in cases of Internet infringement of intellectual property rights. With the help of the Internet, many criminals carry out violations, constantly renovate their patterns and increase their harm, which poses new challenges to the judicial handling of cases.
Third, infringement in the fields of science, education, culture and information technology is frequent. With economic and social development and industrial iterative upgrading, intellectual property infringement cases have changed from traditional fields such as tobacco, alcohol, food and books to scientific, educational and cultural fields such as digital reading, video and audio, as well as new business forms and fields such as computer software and layout design.
Fourth, the trend of gang, industrialization and chain is obvious. In 2021, joint crimes accounted for 68.3%, 28.2 percentage points higher than the overall criminal crimes.
In view of the above characteristics of intellectual property infringement cases, the procuratorial organs will focus on the following work: first, give full play to the advantages of the “integration of arrest and prosecution” system, focus on the infringement and counterfeiting in the Internet field strongly reflected by the people and the crime of infringing intellectual property rights in new fields involving new business forms, crack down according to law and form a deterrent. Second, establish and improve the consultation system of technical investigators and experts, actively do a good job in intervening in investigation, guiding evidence collection and supplementing investigation, and promote the joint solution of technical problems such as electronic data evidence collection and evidence storage. Third, strengthen the connection of execution. If the circumstances are minor and do not constitute a crime but are suspected of administrative violations, they shall be transferred to the administrative organ for handling in time. Fourth, actively formulate and issue guiding cases and typical cases, strengthen case handling guidance and unify the standards of law application.
Breaking criminal, civil and administrative barriers and “one case, three investigations” of intellectual property cases
21st century: in November 2020, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate established an intellectual property procuratorial office. How effective is it now?
Gong Ming: the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has established an intellectual property procuratorial office to centrally and uniformly exercise the criminal, civil and administrative procuratorial functions of intellectual property, and comprehensively promote the procuratorial work of intellectual property. The effectiveness of the reform is gradually showing.
The organization and leadership were further strengthened. By the end of 2020, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate will carry out pilot projects for centralized and unified implementation of intellectual property procuratorial functions in some provinces and cities, and strengthen the professional construction of institutions and personnel.
In addition, we should punish the crimes of infringing intellectual property rights according to law, actively build a diversified supervision pattern of civil litigation, and promote the deepening and implementation of intellectual property administrative prosecution. Since last year, the number of cases has increased significantly, and the quality and efficiency of handling cases have improved significantly. In 2021, procuratorial organs across the country approved the arrest of more than 7800 people who committed crimes against intellectual property rights, an increase of 9.2% year-on-year; More than 14000 people were prosecuted, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%; The acceptance of civil effective judgments and mediation supervision cases involving intellectual property rights increased three times year-on-year.
21st century: in the process of comprehensive judicial protection of intellectual property rights, how does the intellectual property procuratorial office plan to further integrate and optimize criminal, civil and administrative procuratorial functions?
Gong Ming: on the one hand, based on the respective characteristics and development of intellectual property criminal, civil and administrative procuratorial, we should strengthen the performance of functions. Criminal prosecutions should continue to do well, focus on prominent issues strongly reflected by the people and concerned by public opinion, as well as frontier issues of intellectual property rights in new business forms and new fields, and focus on handling a number of cases with demonstration and leading significance, so as to form a strong deterrent. Civil prosecutions should strengthen accurate supervision, pay attention to protesting against typical cases with correction, innovation and leading value in judicial ideas, promote the unification of judicial ideas and standards, and achieve the effect of “protesting a case and governing a piece”. Administrative procuratorial organs should promote the deepening and implementation of administrative litigation, strengthen the supervision of administrative litigation, and strengthen the research on administrative cases of authorization and confirmation of rights such as trademarks, patents and new plant varieties. Adhere to the concept of penetrating supervision and promote administration according to law through administrative litigation supervision.
On the other hand, grasp the characteristics of intellectual property procuratorial law and actively build a comprehensive duty performance model in line with the characteristics of intellectual property cases. First of all, we should break the bottleneck of traditional thinking. Break the barriers of criminal, civil and administrative procuratorial work, carry out “one case and three investigations” on intellectual property cases, simultaneously review whether it involves criminal prosecution, administrative violation and civil accountability, highlight comprehensive review, and realize the integration of case handling ideas and work integration. Secondly, we should improve our comprehensive ability to perform our duties. Cultivate professional and professional case handling teams, give full play to the advantages of procuratorial integration, uniformly allocate professional forces, and handle major, difficult and complex cases. Actively explore the working mechanism of criminal incidental civil litigation in intellectual property cases, solve the problems of criminal responsibility investigation and civil responsibility, reduce the litigation burden of obligees and save judicial resources.
Actively perform their duties according to law and promote the standardized governance of the Internet industry
21st century: the copyright issue in the Internet field has attracted great attention in recent years. Last year, short video infringement was widely discussed in the society. How should procuratorial organs give full play to their functions and promote the solution of Internet copyright issues?
Gong Ming: copyright department