Study on the Judicial Application of Punitive Damages for Intellectual Property Rights in China

Abstract

Since the first introduction of the punitive damages system in the Trademark Law in 2013, progressive improvements have been made in China's legislation relating to punitive damages for intellectual property rights (IPR). Nevertheless, there are many difficulties in the judicial application of punitive damages for IPR. For example, there are extensive discussions around the determination of punitive damages multipliers and the generalization of statutory damages in both theoretical and practical circles. Therefore, based on China's current status of judicial application of punitive damages for IPR, taking reference from typical cases, and borrowing from experiences of punitive damages for IPR in foreign countries, this study aims to improve China's punitive damages system for IPR by unifying application standards, defining application range, and defining the standard and method for damages calculation.