Trademark infringement is an illegal act that violates the Trademark Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) and other relevant laws and infringes upon the exclusive right of others to use registered trademarks. Trademark infringement not only infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of trademark registrants, but also infringes on the legitimate interests of consumers and undermines the order of socialist market economy. Therefore, the parties involved in trademark infringement should bear corresponding legal responsibilities for their infringement.
The legal liability of trademark infringement can be divided into three forms: civil liability, administrative liability and criminal liability.
Civil liability of trademark infringement.
Trademark exclusive right is a kind of civil right, and trademark infringement is also a kind of civil tort. Because of trademark infringement, it affects others' legitimate exercise of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark and causes economic losses to others. Therefore, according to the principle of civil law, the infringer must bear the responsibility and obligation to compensate others for their losses. The infringed has the right to claim compensation from the infringer. The significance of trademark law to establish this relationship of rights and obligations arising from trademark infringement lies in protecting the exclusive right to use trademarks. According to the newly revised Articles 53 and 56 of the Trademark Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) and the General Principles of the Civil Law, the civil liability for trademark infringement is as follows:
1, stop the infringement;
2. Compensation for losses;
3. Eliminate the influence and restore the reputation;
4. apologize.
The above ways of bearing civil liability can be used separately or in combination.
In handling trademark infringement cases, the people's courts may, in addition to applying the above provisions, admonish them, order them to make a statement of repentance, confiscate the property and illegal income obtained from illegal infringement activities, and impose penalties such as fines and detention.
Second, the administrative responsibility of trademark infringement.
Administrative responsibility refers to the legal consequences that a dignified person must bear when committing illegal acts prohibited by laws, regulations and rules, that is, he should be punished by administrative law enforcement organs. Administrative responsibility is used for administrative violations that do not constitute a crime. According to the newly revised Article 53 of the Trademark Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) and Article 43 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Trademark Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), the administrative liability for trademark infringement is as follows:
1, ordered to immediately stop the infringement;
2. Order to stop selling immediately;
3. Confiscating and destroying infringing goods and tools specially used for manufacturing infringing goods and forging registered trademarks;
4. Collect and destroy the infringing trademark marks;
5. If the infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark does not constitute a crime, the administrative department for industry and commerce may, according to the circumstances, impose a fine of less than 50% of the illegal business amount or less than 5 times the profit from the infringement; The person directly responsible for the infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark may be fined 1 000 yuan.
6. At the request of the parties, mediation can be conducted on the amount of tort compensation. If mediation fails, the parties may bring a lawsuit to the people's court.
How to calculate the amount of compensation for infringement of the exclusive right to use a trademark Article 56 of the newly revised Trademark Law clearly stipulates: "The amount of compensation for infringement of the exclusive right to use a trademark shall be the interests obtained by the infringer during the infringement period. Or the losses suffered by the infringer during the infringement period, including the reasonable expenses paid by the infringer to stop the infringement. If the interests of the infringer mentioned in the preceding paragraph or the losses suffered by the infringer due to infringement are difficult to determine, the people's court shall award compensation of less than 500,000 yuan according to the circumstances of the infringement. "
Third, the criminal responsibility of trademark infringement that constitutes a crime.
Serious trademark infringement poses serious harm to society and is of a criminal nature. Due to the corresponding criminal responsibility, counterfeiting a trademark is a serious act in trademark infringement. If the act of counterfeiting trademarks constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated by judicial organs. The crime of counterfeiting trademarks has the following characteristics:
1. The subjects of the crime of counterfeiting trademarks are natural persons, foreigners, individual industrial and commercial households, various enterprises, institutions and foreign enterprises who have reached the legal age of responsibility and have the ability to be responsible.
2. The object of the crime of counterfeiting trademarks is the exclusive right of the registered trademark owner and the normal trademark management order of the country.
3. The subjective aspect of the crime of counterfeiting trademarks is that the actor must be intentional. Different purposes and motives do not affect the constitution of the crime, but negligence does not constitute a crime.
4. The objective aspect of the crime of counterfeiting trademarks is that the actor has carried out the act of counterfeiting trademarks.
The above four characteristics must be met at the same time, and the specific behavior can meet the filing standards of the crime of counterfeiting trademarks by judicial organs, so as to constitute the crime of counterfeiting trademarks. According to the newly revised Criminal Procedure Law, the crime of counterfeiting trademarks is investigated by the public security organs.
There are three provisions in China's criminal law on how to identify the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks and impose criminal sanctions, namely, the Criminal Law (1979), the Supplementary Provisions of NPC Standing Committee on Punishing the Crime of Counterfeiting Registered Trademarks (1993) and the newly revised Criminal Law (1997).
There are five specific types of trademark counterfeiting crimes:
1, the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks;
2. The crime of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks;
3. The crime of forging or making others' registered trademarks without authorization;
4. The crime of selling forged or unauthorized registered trademarks;
5. State functionaries take advantage of their positions to cover up the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks.
There are three kinds of criminal sanctions for the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks:
1, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and may also or only be fined.
2. Be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and be fined.
3. If an enterprise or institution commits the crime of counterfeiting another person's registered trademark, the person in charge directly responsible and other directly responsible personnel shall be punished in accordance with the aforementioned 1 2, and may also be fined.