Foreign as well as Chinese companies often complain about the reluctance and softness of Chinese Courts when it comes to imposing fines based on misbehavior of the defendant. The Beijing IP Court now set a strong signal regarding this matter.
In a recent patent infringement lawsuit before the Beijing IP Court, the defendant refused to comply with the Court’s order to turn in its financial records as well as samples of the products accused of infringement for inspection and damage calculation. As a result, the Court imposed a fine of RMB 1 million (about US$ 140,000), which is the maximum fine for such offenses.
The plaintiff in this dispute case about the utility model patent No. 200720022658.8, Qingdao Ke Ni Le Mechanical Equipment Co., Ltd., applied for compulsory evidence preservation through the Court. The defendant, Qingdao Di Kai Mechanical Equipment Co., Ltd., refused to submit the requested documents and samples even after several Court orders before and during the hearing, which ultimately resulted in the heavy fine.
Recently, we see the development that Chinese Courts, yet especially the Beijing IP Court, become stricter in imposing fines and take more efforts regarding the calculation of damages. Moreover, damages as such tend to become higher, as another recent post in this blog shows.
Source: Beijing IP Court
China Intellectual Property Blog 