SAMR to Severely Combat Unlawful and Criminal Acts in the IP Field
The State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") recently drafted and issued the Provisions on Referral of Suspected Criminal Cases by the Administrative Law Enforcement Organs (Revised Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") for public comments by June 28, 2020.
The Draft for Comment proposes revisions to Article 3, adding a new paragraph as Paragraph 2 in addition to the existing one to clarify the procedures for referral of intellectual property (IP)-related cases involving suspected crimes. Specifically, the new paragraph reads: "for IP-related cases, the administrative law enforcement organs may refer them to public security organs, if they think it necessary to take further investigative measures to obtain more evidence to determine whether the criteria for putting these cases as criminal ones on file are fulfilled, as they cast reasonable doubts on the existence of crimes, based on the case facts they have ascertained and the evidence they have collected during their probes."
(Source: http://www.samr.gov.cn)