China’s Hainan Province Proposes 1 Million RMB Rewards for Reporting Intellectual Property Infringement
On September 2, 2021, the Hainan Provincial Intellectual Property Office released the draft Interim Measures for Reporting and Rewarding Major Intellectual Property Violations in the Field of Market Supervision in Hainan Province (海南省市场监管领域知识产权重大违法行为举报奖励暂行办法) for comment. The Measures provide rewards of up to 1 million RMB (~$155 thousand USD) for reporting intellectual property infringement including of patents, trademarks, trade secrets, geographical indicators, integrated circuit layouts, etc. The infringement must be serious enough to qualify as a crime or subject to heavy fines.
In order to qualify for rewards, the following conditions must be met per Article 6:
(1) The informant has specific facts on violation of law or clues to the violation of law or crime, and provides key evidence.
(2) The contents reported were not known by the intellectual property administrative department in advance;
(3) It is under the jurisdiction of the intellectual property administrative authority of Hainan Province;
(4) The contents reported have been investigated and closed by the intellectual property administrative department and have been given an administrative punishment, or have been transferred to the judicial organ for criminal liabilities;
(5) The informant has not reported the facts to any other administrative law enforcement organ or judicial organ.
There are three levels of reporting rewards per Article 10, with a cap of 1 million RMB,
For cases with fines and confiscated funds, the intellectual property management department calculates the award amount according to the following standards, and comprehensively considers the value of the goods involved in the case, social influence procedures and other factors to determine the final award amount: (1) If it belongs to the first-level reporting reward, the reward shall be 5% of the fine and confiscated. According to this calculation, if it is less than 5,000 RMB, 5,000 RMBwill be awarded; (2) If it is a second-level report reward, 3% of the fine and confiscated will be rewarded. According to this calculation, if it is less than 3,000 RMB, a reward of 3,000 RMBwill be given; (3) If it belongs to the third-level reporting reward, the reward will be 1% of the fine and confiscated. According to this calculation, if it is less than 1,000 RMB, 1,000 RMBwill be awarded; In cases where there is no fine or confiscated goods, the rewards for the first-level reporting reward to the third-level reporting reward will be no less than 5,000 RMB, 3,000 RMB, and 1,000 RMB, respectively .
(1) Level 1 reports and rewards. The standards for determination of such levels are: to provide the detailed facts and direct evidence on the violation of law of the party being reported on, the contents of the tip-off are completely consistent with the facts on the violation of law, and the tip-off matters are verified as especially serious illegal acts or suspected crimes;
(2) Level II reports and rewards. The standards for determination at these levels are: to provide the facts and direct evidence on the violation of law of the party being reported on, and the contents of the tip-off are completely consistent with the facts on the violation of law;
(3) Reporting rewards at the third level. The standards for determination at these levels are: to provide the basic facts and relevant evidence on the violation of law of the party being reported on, and the contents of the tip-off are basically consistent with the facts on violation of law.
Comments to the Hainan IP Office are due September 17, 2021 and can be submitted vial mail :Address: No. 8 Qingnian Road, Meilan District, Haikou City; Contact: Wang Jingwei, Tel: 65881106, 18689891127, or Email: hnipa@hainan.gov.cn.
The full text of the draft Interim Measures are available here (Chinese only): 海南省市场监管领域知识产权重大违法行为举报奖励暂行办法（征求意见稿）.
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