"The Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringing Intellectual Property Rights" (hereinafter referred to as the "2025 Interpretation") came into effect on April 26, 2025. This interpretation is legally binding and unifies and replaces the previous relevant judicial interpretations issued in 2004, 2007, and 2020, as well as the relevant reply issued in 2005. It has now become the primary judicial basis for determining intellectual property crimes in China for the foreseeable future.
The background for formulating this interpretation is as follows:
Intellectual property protection is currently a key focus of the government's work. From 2013 to 2024, over 69,100 criminal cases of intellectual property infringement were prosecuted nationwide. As infringement in this field remains frequent and widespread, with crimes exhibiting characteristics such as new forms, complexity, and high technological involvement, the Eleventh Amendment to the Criminal Law, which came into effect on March 1, 2021, introduced significant revisions to the relevant offenses. To unify judicial standards and guide judicial practice, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate formulated this interpretation to further regulate the handling of intellectual property criminal cases.
The main content of the "2025 Interpretation" consists of 31 articles and covers five areas below:
1. Trademark crimes.
2. Crime of counterfeiting patents.
3. Copyright-related crimes.
4. Crimes involving trade secrets.
5. Common issues related to intellectual property crimes.
Meanwhile, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate have jointly released typical cases on criminal protection of intellectual property rights, which involve common disputes over legal application in practice. The release of these typical cases will assist courts at all levels and in all regions in the correct application of the relevant provisions of the "2025 Interpretation".