Intellectual property protection is an important national policy and an important guarantee for integrating with international standards and supporting innovation.The crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks is an important part of intellectual property crimes. At present, the crime situation of trademark infringement is still severe, and my country's theoretical circles rarely study this from the perspective of class crime theory. In view of this, studying the illegal elements of this crime from the perspective of the second-level criminal system will be helpful to deepen the research on this crime.
The act of counterfeiting registered trademarks is called the crime of counterfeiting trademarks in the 1979 Criminal Law. In 1997, the crime of counterfeiting trademarks was officially established. In 2021, the Criminal Law Amendment (11) criminalized service trademark infringements and increased penalties, opening a new stage in the criminal protection of trademark rights. The crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks is the crime with the largest number of cases and the largest proportion of criminal cases involving infringement of registered trademark rights.
The essence of illegal constituent elements is to reflect the purpose of criminal legislation to protect legal interests. This crime protects the legitimate rights and interests of consumers to recognize brands for shopping and the composite legal interests of the socialist market economic order. Trademark rights should be given top priority and be protected as superior legal interests.
Among the objective and illegal elements of this crime, "registered trademarks" should include commodity trademarks, service trademarks, collective trademarks, and certification marks, which should be valid and irrevocable or invalid. "Identical registered trademarks" include not only identical trademarks, but also trademarks that are not identical but have basically the same content. "Substantially identical trademarks" should be distinguished from similar ones, and the scope cannot be expanded arbitrarily.the "Nice Classification" should be used as the standard for judgment, and then the goods and services with "different names" should be identified based on the objective conditions of the goods and the subjective perceptions of consumers. "Trademark use" refers to the use to identify the source of goods or services, emphasizing the protection of the entire commercial chain. The use in advertising and other scenarios should of course be regulated by this crime. Permission is deemed to be obtained when the perpetrator obtains the written or oral consent of the right holder. Trademark rights protected by criminal law should not be controversial. "Using goods and services beyond the permitted scope" of a registered trademark and processing, transforming and selling other people's goods are essentially "unauthorized use" and can be evaluated under criminal law. However, old items that have been repaired should not be punished.
The subjective guilt of this crime can only be constituted intentionally. The element of intention is that the perpetrator has knowledge and intention of the facts constituting the crime. However, "intention" involves personal psychological attitudes and emotions, which is difficult to prove. Therefore, intention as the connotation of intentionality only needs to have the element of "knowledge", that is, distinguishing whether it is direct intention or indirect intention is not necessary in this crime. If the perpetrator is deceived by the commissioned party and produces the product, it should be established as a fault and should not be considered a crime. Moreover, this crime is not a purpose crime, and the motivation and purpose of the perpetrator do not affect the establishment of the crime.
The negative illegality of this crime includes legitimate business behaviors. Although the prior user of a trademark continues to use the trademark, although it meets the subjective and objective elements of this crime, this behavior in compliance with the Trademark Law is obviously not illegal, and the same is true for descriptive use of another person's trademark. The "serious circumstances" in this crime should be the same concept as the punishable illegality. If the amount of illegal income in the crime of counterfeiting a registered trademark is lower than the completed standard, it should be deemed not to constitute a crime rather than an attempted crime. The act of counterfeiting well-known trademarks and the act of counterfeiting registered trademarks with a high degree of dissemination should be included in "other serious acts".