Bearing criminal liability does not exempt you from civil liability. You also need to compensate the manufacturer. I will share with you the compensation amount for the crime of counterfeiting trademarks. You are welcome to read it. It is for reference only!

How to determine the amount of compensation for trademark infringement? How to determine the amount of compensation for trademark infringement?

The "Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China" stipulates: The amount of compensation for trademark infringement shall be the benefits obtained by the infringer due to the infringement during the infringement period, or the infringed party's compensation for the infringement during the period of infringement. Losses suffered by infringement include reasonable expenses paid by the infringer to stop the infringement.

If it is difficult to determine the benefits gained by the infringer due to the infringement or the losses suffered by the infringed party due to the infringement as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the people's court shall award a compensation of not more than 500,000 yuan based on the circumstances of the infringement. .

The law stipulates the calculation method for determining the amount of compensation for trademark infringers. If it is difficult to determine the amount of compensation using statutory calculation methods, the people's court will award a compensation of less than 500,000 yuan. However, the law does not give the victim the initiative in calculating the amount of compensation for infringement. The Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Disputes over Trademark Infringement makes up for this shortcoming. The "Interpretation" stipulates: When the people's court determines the infringer's liability for compensation in accordance with the provisions of Article 56, paragraph 1, of the Trademark Law, it may calculate the amount of compensation according to the calculation method selected by the right holder. ?

When calculating the amount of infringement compensation, the infringed party must not only calculate the losses caused by trademark infringement, but also calculate the investigation, evidence collection, negotiation, mediation, litigation, etc. expenses incurred by the infringed party to stop the infringement. Reasonable fees to be paid, as well as the costs of retaining an attorney in connection with the litigation.

Of course, after the infringed party has calculated the compensation method and calculated the amount of compensation in accordance with the law, the people's court should also consider the nature, duration, consequences of the specific infringement, the reputation of the trademark, the license fee, etc. The final decision was made after considering the factors.

How to prevent counterfeit trademarks?

Preventing counterfeit trademarks and curbing trademark infringement requires the joint efforts of the whole society. It involves multiple departments, multiple levels, and multiple links. It can be said to be a systematic project. The following aspects of work should be done:

1. Continue to increase the publicity of trademark laws and regulations, gradually enhance citizens' trademark and brand concepts, and provide an ideological basis for preventing the occurrence of counterfeit trademark crimes.

2. Industry and commerce, quality inspection, and public security law enforcement departments should work closely together to strengthen the coordination mechanism and form a joint force for rectification. In the "anti-counterfeiting" activities, we must not only investigate and deal with the production and sale of fake and shoddy products, but also resolutely investigate and deal with the acts of counterfeiting trademarks.

3. Strengthen the dynamic management of the printing, advertising, and signage industries, especially individual and contracting enterprises in these industries, and completely intercept, crack down on, and ban illegal printing, counterfeiting of registered trademarks, and Trademark activities.

4. Registered trademark owners, especially well-known trademark owners, must strengthen their awareness of self-protection of registered trademarks. The following protective measures can usually be taken:

Pay attention to making sure that your registered trademark can cover similar goods, try to avoid similar trademarks being registered by others, and domestic registered trademarks being registered by others abroad;

When adding branches, joint factories or establishing joint ventures, when allowing the use or transfer of trademark exclusive rights, or using the trademark exclusive rights to offset capital contributions, the procedures must be complete and legal, and the scope of use by others must be appropriately controlled; < /p>

When you discover that your registered trademark has been counterfeited, you can collect evidence on your own and file a lawsuit with the court, requesting that the infringement be stopped and compensated. However, you should also file a complaint with the public security department in a timely manner and use the Criminal Law to protect your trademark. Legitimate rights and interests shall not be infringed.

How to constitute implicit reverse counterfeiting of trademarks?

However, this type of implicit reverse counterfeiting of trademarks has occurred in practice.

There is such a case: the plaintiff Rugao Printing Machinery Factory in Jiangsu Province enjoys the exclusive right to register the trademark "Yin Pheasant". The defendant Rugao City Yide Materials Co., Ltd. purchased the old offset printing press of the "Yin Pheasant" brand from the plaintiff user and removed the fixed parts. The nameplate on the machine (the plaintiff made the trademark logo together with the product technical parameters and factory name into a product nameplate and fixed it on the offset printing machine it produced), after renovation and repainting, sold it to other users as its own product without a logo. The court held that the defendant's removal of the trademark of the goods while the goods were in circulation directly violated the trademark owner's right to mark its trademark on the goods, severed the connection between the trademark owner and the product users, and ended the The market expansion attributes of trademarks. Therefore, the defendant’s actions constituted trademark infringement.

(1) The infringer is a seller or middleman

According to the principle of exhaustion of trademark rights, when defining implicit reverse counterfeiting of a trademark, the scope of infringers should be limited to Directly outside the user.

In order to protect the correspondence between registered trademarks and goods from abnormal changes during the commercial circulation process, the law needs to prohibit commercial entities from removing registered trademarks on goods. What needs special attention is that those who may constitute infringement in the circulation of goods include not only sellers, but also intermediaries such as transportation and warehousing.

(2) The infringer removes or covers the registered trademark on the goods

When defining the implicit reverse counterfeiting of trademarks, "removing" and "covering" the registered trademark All situations should be stipulated in the law as infringements against the trademark owner. Because, if we adopt a literal interpretation of "remove", it obviously cannot include "cover". However, covering a registered trademark can achieve the effect of removing a registered trademark. In fact, it is a method of removing a registered trademark. Parallel provisions on removal and coverage of registered trademarks will facilitate common understanding and avoid sophistry by infringers.

When it was finally determined that the trademark was implicit reverse counterfeiting, the author believed that the plaintiff did not need to prove that the defendant’s above-mentioned behavior had harmful consequences. The reasons are: (1) The defendant removes or covers the registered trademarks on other people’s goods during the circulation of goods. This behavior itself is a serious infringement of other people’s trademark rights, and it is obvious that the damage has been caused or will be caused; ( 2) It is difficult to prove the damage caused by trademark infringement. For example, although there is implicit reverse counterfeiting in some cases, the sales of the trademark owner’s goods continue to rise, making it difficult to prove that it has been damaged; (3) For trademarks Remedies for infringement are not limited to damages. They can also take the form of cessation of infringement, removal of obstructions, elimination of effects, etc. In many cases, the use of these latter remedies does not require proof of specific damage results.

(3) The infringer removes or covers the registered trademark on the goods without the consent of the trademark owner

Trademark right is a type of property right and is not inseparable from the person. The right holder is free to dispose of its registered trademark. Even if someone else removes or covers a registered trademark with the consent of the trademark owner, it is not a trademark infringement, even if it damages the trademark owner. It does not constitute implicit reverse counterfeiting of the trademark, because the trademark owner has the right to give up all or part of his trademark. rights and interests. Only removing or covering a registered trademark without the consent of the trademark owner may constitute implicit reverse counterfeiting of the trademark.

(4) The status of the trademark owner’s goods has not changed

In order to safeguard consumers’ right to know and the legitimate trademark rights and interests of the trademark owner, it is necessary to ensure that the relationship between the registered trademark and the goods The corresponding relationship can be correctly perceived by consumers. Implicit reverse counterfeiting of trademarks breaks this correspondence relationship. Therefore, implicit reverse counterfeiting is prohibited by law. The negative judgment made by the law on implicit reverse counterfeiting of trademarks implies a premise that the goods have not changed after being affixed with a registered trademark until they reach the direct user.

Because if the goods have changed before reaching the direct user, strictly protecting the correspondence between the trademark and the goods may cause damage to the trademark owner. For example, some products that have been damaged, deteriorated or have reduced functions will not only fail to realize the trademark owner's desire to create a brand and advertise, but may instead cause the trademark owner's reputation to be disparaged.

Therefore, if the goods have been changed before reaching the direct user, it is not necessary to maintain the correspondence between the trademark and the changed goods. Instead, such incorrect correspondence should be eliminated. In fact, the Trademark Law has given the trademark owner the right to eliminate such incorrect correspondence in the proviso to the principle of exhaustion of trademark rights. Therefore, for sellers or intermediaries other than the trademark owner, removing or covering the registered trademark on damaged goods does not damage the interests of the trademark owner and does not constitute trademark infringement. It can be seen that the fact that the status of the trademark owner's goods has not changed should be a necessary condition for implicit reverse counterfeiting of the trademark.

The above is the amount of compensation I provide for the crime of counterfeiting trademarks. I hope it can be helpful to everyone.

?