| Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China | Amendment (XI) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China |
Article 213. Crimes ofCounterfeiting Registered Trademarks | Whoever uses a trademark identical with a registered trademark on the same kind of goods without the permission of the owner of the registered trademark shall, if the case is of a serious nature, be sentenced to imprisonment or criminal detention of not more than three years and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the circumstances are especially serious, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more than seven years, and a fine. | Whoever uses a trademark identical with a registered trademark on the same kind of goods or services without the permission of the owner of the registered trademark shall, if the case is of a serious nature, be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three years and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the circumstances are especially serious, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more than ten years, and a fine. |
Article 214. Crimes of Selling Products with Counterfeit Registered Trademarks | Whoever knowingly sells goods bearing a falsely used registered trademark shall, if the amount of sales is relatively large, be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the amount of sales is huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more than seven years, and a fine. | Whoever knowingly sells goods bearing a falsely used registered trademark shall, if the amount of illegal income is relatively large or there are other serious circumstances, be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three years and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the amount of illegal income is huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more than ten years, and a fine. |
Article 215. Crimes of Illegally Producing and Selling Illegally-produced Registered Trademark Logos | Whoever forges or produces without permit labels of another person's registered trademark or sells labels of a registered trademark that is forged or produced without permit shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to imprisonmentof not more than three years or criminal detention or public surveillance and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the circumstances are especially serious, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more than seven years, and a fine. | Whoever forges or produces without permit labels of another person's registered trademark or sells labels of a registered trademark that is forged or produced without permit shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three years and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the circumstances are especially serious, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more than ten years, and a fine. |
Article 216. Crimes of Counterfeiting Patents | 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. | 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. Crimes of Infringing on Copyright | Whoever, for profits, infringes upon copyright under any of the following circumstances shall, if the amount of illegal income is relatively large or there are other serious circumstances, be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three yearsor criminal detention and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the amount of illegal income is huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more than seven years, and a fine:(1) Duplicating and/or distributing any literary work, music work, cinematographic work, televised work, video work, computer software or any other work without the permission of its copyright owner. (2) Publishing any book of which another person has the exclusive right of publication.(3) Duplicating and/or distributing any audio or video product without the permission of its producer.(4) Producing or selling any artistic work bearing a fake signature of another person. | Whoever, for profits, infringes upon copyright or the rights relating to copyright under any of the following circumstances shall, if the amount of illegal income is relatively large or there are other serious circumstances, be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three years and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the amount of illegal income is huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more than ten years, and a fine:(1) Duplicating and/or distributing or through the information network, disseminating to the public any literary work, music work, artistic work, audiovisual work, computer software or any other work provided for by laws and administrative regulations without the permission of its copyright owner.(2) Publishing any book of which another person has the exclusive right of publication.(3) Duplicating and/or distributing or through the information network, disseminating to the public any audio or video product without the permission of its producer.(4) Duplicating and/or distributing any audio or video product recording the performance, or through the information network, disseminating to the public the performance, without the permission of its performer. (5) Producing or selling any artistic work bearing a fake signature of another person.(6) Intentionally evading or disrupting the technical measures taken by a copyright owner or the owner of rights relating to the copyright to protect his or her copyright or the rights relating to the copyright to a work or audio or video product, without the permission thereof. |
Article 218. Crimes of Selling Infringing Reproductions | Whoever, for profits, knowingly sells the infringing duplicates set forth in Article 217 of this Law shall, if the amount of illegal income is huge, be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only. | Whoever, for profits, knowingly sells the infringing duplicates set forth in Article 217 of this Law shall, if the amount of illegal income is huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than five years and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only. |
Article 219. Crimes of Infringing on Trade Secrets | Whoever commits any of the following conduct to infringe upon a trade secret and brings significant losses to persons having the rights to the commercial secrets shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the consequences are especially serious, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more seven years and a fine:(1) Obtaining a right holder's trade secret by theft, inducement, coercion or any other illicit means.(2) Disclosing, using or allowing any other person to use the trade secret obtained from the right holder by the means mentioned in the preceding paragraph.(3) Disclosing, using or allowing any other person to use the trade secret known by him or her in violation of the agreement with the right holder or the requirements of the right holder for keeping the trade secret confidential.Whoever acquires, uses, or discloses other people's trade secret, although he or she knows or should know the conduct set forth in the preceding paragraph shall be punished as infringing upon the trade secret.For the purposes of this Article, ‘trade secret’ means the technical information and operation information that are unknown to the public, can bring economic profits to their right holders, are functional, and are kept as secrets by their right holders.For the purposes of this Article, ‘right holder' means the owner of the trade secret and the person who is permitted by the owner to use the trade secret. | Whoever commits any of the following conduct to infringe upon a trade secret shall, if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than three years and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; or if the circumstances are especially serious, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than three years nor more ten years and a fine:(1) Obtaining a right holder's trade secret by theft, bribery, fraud, coercion, electronic intrusion or any other illicit means.(2) Disclosing, using or allowing any other person to use the trade secret obtained from the right holder by the means mentioned in the preceding paragraph.(3) Disclosing, using or allowing any other person to use the trade secret known by him or her in violation of the confidentiality obligation or the requirements of the right holder for keeping the trade secret confidential.Whoever acquires, discloses, or uses or allows any other person to use the trade secret although he or she knows the conduct set forth in the preceding paragraph shall be punished as infringing upon the trade secret.For the purposes of this Article, ‘right holder' means the owner of the trade secret and the person who is permitted by the owner to use the trade secret. |
Article 219A Crimes of Economic Espionage |
| Whoever steals, spies on, buys or illegally provides any trade secret for an overseas institution, organization or individual shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than five years and a fine, or be sentenced to a fine only; and if the circumstances are serious, be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than five years and a fine. |
Article 220. Penalty Provisions of Unit Crimes of Infringing Upon Intellectual Property Rights | Where an entity commits a crime as provided for in Article 213 through Article 219A of this Section, the entity shall be sentenced to a fine, and its directly liable executive in charge and other directly liable persons shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the aforesaid articles of this Section respectively. | Where an entity commits a crime as provided for in Article 213 through Article 219A of this Section, the entity shall be sentenced to a fine, and its directly liable executive in charge and other directly liable persons shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the aforesaid articles of this Section respectively. |