Recently, the Beijing Municipal People’s Procuratorate released the “2024 Typical Intellectual Property Protection Cases of Beijing Procuratorial Organs.” Lusheng Law Firm’s cases “Representing a world-renowned entertainment company in the copyright infringement case against Li” and “Representing an internationally renowned film and entertainment company in the case against Liu and 12 others for counterfeiting registered trademarks and selling goods bearing counterfeit registered trademarks” were honorably selected.
01
Representing a world-renowned entertainment company in the copyright infringement case against Li
Brief Facts of the Case
The right holder is a world-renowned entertainment company. Li operated a shop selling electronic products such as game consoles and software. In the course of business, Li discovered methods to obtain games for free by cracking game consoles, and began to research how to bypass the technical protection measures set by the right holder in order to obtain games free of charge. Li purchased a large number of cracking chips and personally disassembled game consoles at home to solder the chips and achieve cracking. Li then sold cracked game consoles through an online shop, with a very large sales amount.
Lusheng Law Firm, acting for the right holder, assisted the public security organ, the procuratorate and the court by providing legal opinions and promoting the progress of the case. In May 2023, the public security organ transferred Li to the Fengtai District People’s Procuratorate of Beijing for review and prosecution on suspicion of the crime of copyright infringement. In April 2024, the Fengtai District People’s Procuratorate instituted a public prosecution against Li on suspicion of the crime of copyright infringement. The Fengtai District People’s Court convicted Li of the crime of copyright infringement and sentenced him to three years’ fixed-term imprisonment, suspended for three years, and imposed a fine of RMB 1 million.
Typical Significance
I. The first criminal judgment obtained by the right holder in China targeting “destroying or circumventing technological measures”
In order to seek illicit gains, the offenders adopted the method of soldering cracking chips inside the right holder’s game consoles, thereby destroying or circumventing the technological measures set by the right holder. Unlike traditional intellectual property crimes, this type of criminal conduct involves a considerable amount of technical content. The review of technical content is also referred to as a difficulty in case handling. During the handling of the case, the lawyers actively cooperated with the public security organ, the procuratorate and the court, explaining the technical issues involved in the case so as to resolve the technical difficulties. They successfully secured recognition of the criminal conduct involved in this case as the offense of “destroying or circumventing technological measures” under the crime of copyright infringement. This case constitutes the first criminal judgment obtained by the right holder in China targeting “destroying or circumventing technological measures,” laying a solid foundation for its subsequent rights protection.
II. Substantive participation in the case and in-depth investigation of criminal clues
At the stage of review and prosecution, the lawyers proactively applied for access to the case file and reviewed the case, discovering that the sales amount determined by the public security organ was insufficient and that the entire amount involved in the case had not been fully ascertained. The lawyers submitted legal opinions to the procuratorial organ, requesting full determination of the amount involved in the case. The procuratorial organ adopted the lawyers’ opinions and carried out supplementary investigation on its own, resulting in full determination of the entire amount involved in the case.
At the trial stage, the lawyers appeared in court as litigation agents, presenting opinions on the technical issues and copyright-related matters involved in the case, thereby achieving full-process protection of the right holder’s copyright.
02
Representing an internationally renowned film and entertainment company in the case against Liu and 12 others for counterfeiting registered trademarks and selling goods bearing counterfeit registered trademarks
Brief Facts of the Case
The right holder is a world-renowned entertainment company. Hu, Liu and others produced, sold and leased goods bearing counterfeit registered trademarks, disrupting market order and seriously infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of the right holder. Lusheng Law Firm, acting for the right holder, investigated the infringing group, clarifying the division of upstream and downstream roles of the suspects at each stage of infringement, and filed a report with the public security organ.
Subsequently, Lusheng Law Firm, acting for the right holder, assisted the public security organ, the procuratorate and the court by providing legal opinions and promoting the progress of the case. The public security organ apprehended more than ten suspects in one operation, seizing tens of thousands of counterfeit products and counterfeit trademarks involved in the case, and in June–July 2024 transferred 11 suspects separately to the Tongzhou District People’s Procuratorate of Beijing for review and prosecution. In January 2025, the Tongzhou District People’s Court convicted Hu, Liu and 11 other suspects of the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks and the crime of selling goods bearing counterfeit registered trademarks, and sentenced them to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 10 months to 4 years and 4 months, and imposed fines totaling RMB 3.55 million.
Typical Significance
I. Focusing on the substantive nature of production conduct and promoting precise legal characterization
As the victim’s representatives, we conducted an in-depth analysis of Liu’s infringement model and found that his “commissioned processing” conduct did not merely constitute a sales link. Through key evidence discovered during case file review, including Liu’s online communications with the producer, vouchers for delivery of raw materials, and detailed requirements for the goods, we demonstrated that he exercised substantive control over the production process of the counterfeit apparel, and that his conduct already constituted infringing production and manufacturing. On this basis, we submitted a legal opinion and set out the evidentiary circumstances, thereby promoting the judicial organs to additionally recognize the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks and achieving a crackdown on infringement at its source.
II. Deep participation in the case, providing full-process protection for the right holder
At the early investigation stage of the case, we assisted the public security organ in clarifying the specific circumstances of the suspects, and participated in enforcement actions as well as the counting and classification of tens of thousands of infringing products; at the review and prosecution stage, the lawyers proactively applied for access to the case file and reviewed the case, discovering that the offense determined by the public security organ was inaccurate. The lawyers submitted legal opinions to the procuratorial organ, requesting the addition of the offense of counterfeiting registered trademarks, and the procuratorate and the court ultimately adopted the lawyers’ opinions.
———— Case-handling Team ————
Wang Shan
Director of the Shanghai Office, Co-head of Dispute Resolution Practice
cwang@lushenglawyers.com
Hou Juanjuan
Head of Guangzhou Litigation Team
ahou@lushenglawyers.com
Zhang Qing
Lawyer
czhang7@lushenglawyers.com
