China amends provisions on reference of suspected criminal cases to protect IPR

BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has signed a State Council decree to publish a decision on amending the Provisions on Reference of Suspected Criminal Cases by Administrative Law-enforcement Organs.

In order to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), a new paragraph on the reference of suspected criminal cases on IPR was added to Article 3 of the provisions.

For IPR violations, if administrative law-enforcement organs consider that the unlawful acts are suspected of constituting crimes on the basis of the established facts and evidence and shall be further investigated by public security organs, the case shall be referred to public security authorities according to the newly-added regulation.

The regulation provides explicit standards and procedures for administrative law-enforcement organs to refer suspected criminal cases on IPR to criminal justice authorities.

Several other revisions were made to the provisions according to the supervision law and the law on administrative discipline for government employees, said the decision, which will come into force on the date of its publication.