A cross-border trademark infringement case that the Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau of the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) participated in has been selected as 2022-2023 Top Ten Cases at Annual Top Ten Intellectual Property Protection Cases Announcement held by the Quality Brands Protection Committee of China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (QBPC) on April 26 in Beijing. It was the first infringement case selected as the Top Ten Cases among the cases in which the C&ED had participated.
The Annual Top Ten Cases in Intellectual Property Protection are broadly representative and have great international influence in the work of protecting intellectual property. The selected cases are classified in three categories, namely Criminal Case and/or Criminal Procedure, Civil Case and/or Civil Procedure, and Administrative Case and/or Administrative Procedure.
The case of the C&ED was selected as one of the Top Ten Cases in the category of Administrative Case and/or Administrative Procedure. The selected case demonstrated the close co-operation between the law enforcement agencies of the Mainland and Hong Kong. Through intelligence exchange and close communication, the source of counterfeit products had been traced successfully, marking an important reference for handling cross-border intellectual property infringement case.
Intellectual property rights protection is one of the core duties of the C&ED. The Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau of the department is primarily responsible for investigating copyright and counterfeiting offences and has been working closely with intellectual property rights owners and mainland and overseas law enforcement agencies to fight against intellectual property crimes. In 2022, the C&ED detected 523 cases of infringement of intellectual property rights, of which about 96 per cent involved trademark infringement items.
The QBPC is an intellectual property protection organisation in the Mainland. It makes contributions to facilitate and promote the continuous improvements of administrative and judicial protection for intellectual property in the Mainland; to perfect related policies and the legal framework; to construct a fair and orderly environment based on the rule of law for economic growth; and to foster an open innovative environment for the development of science and technology, through strengthening co-operation with government bodies, enterprises, other organisations in the Mainland and the international community.
Ends/Friday, April 28, 2023
