The Supreme People's Court (SPC) has ordered courts at all
levels to adhere to a "full-compensation" principle when dealing
with intellectual property rights (IPR) cases.
"Courts should fully apply logical reasoning and everyday life
experiences, and comprehensively and objectively examine the
evidence for calculating the amount of compensation," SPC
vice-president Cao Jianming told a national work conference on IPR
trials in Jinan on Wednesday.
"Courts should avoid applying simple methods of legal
compensation when handling IPR infringement cases.
"Instead, they should try to guide parties involved to calculate
the amount, using methods of infringement damages and infringement
gains."
In a typical case handled in June of last year, the SPC awarded
Japan's Yamaha Motor Co record damages of 8.3 million yuan ($1.16
million) for a trademark infringement involving a foreign investor,
against Zhejiang Huatian, one of the country's largest motorcycle
makers.
The Japanese firm and legal experts called the verdict
"epoch-making". The damages were said to be based on all evidence
gathered for the lawsuit under a principle of "preponderance of
evidence".
Jiang Zhipei, chief justice of the SPC IPR Tribunal, told
China Daily: "If it were handled simply according to legal
compensation regulations, because of being unable to reach a clear
compensation amount, the figure would have been about 500,000
yuan.
"But the fact was the plaintiff did lose millions according to
the evidence," he said.
Cao said the conclusion of such compensations should be
reasonable and compelling.
He asked judges to be prudent when dealing with copyright
infringements related to cultural products.
"Courts should consider fully the actual transaction
circumstances, including online business behavior, and properly
present full market values," Cao said.
He encouraged courts to introduce specialists such as auditors
and accountants to assist in calculating infringement compensation,
especially in cases of copyright royalties, losses and illegal
gains.
Chinese courts have reportedly been exploring ways to have
specialist agencies access IPR infringement compensation, so as to
establish an infringement compensation affirmation system.
Covering all IPR legal areas, Chinese courts last year accepted
and concluded more than 17,800 and 17,300 IPR cases of first
instance, up 26 and 24 percent, respectively, on 2006.
In addition, the conclusion rate of first trials has also
improved, rising from 73 percent in 2001 to nearly 80 percent last
year.
(China Daily February 22, 2008)