Punitive damages under Chinese patent law

In today's society, when the perpetrator's malicious and intentional rights are violated, effective discipline is difficult with only compensatory damages. With the development of China's economy and high-tech technologies (artificial intelligence, 5G, etc.), the importance of protecting intellectual property rights is increasing day by day. Accordingly, China introduced punitive damages in which intellectual property rights are mixed with civil tort liability and a fine of a punitive nature. Punitive Damages are damages imposed for the purpose of punishing the infringer in a civil trial when the act of an intellectual property infringer intentionally or maliciously commits an illegal act such as implementation or use. It is a system that imposes a large amount of compensation. China implemented punitive damages for patent infringement from June 2021 through the revision of the “Patent Law” in October 2020. This amendment significantly strengthened sanctions against patent infringement in order to prevent patent infringement and protect patent holders. The contents of the amendment stand out, including punitive damages up to five times in case of intentional infringement, an order to submit documents, and an increase of 500 yuan in legal damages. In this paper, we mainly look at the legal application of the punitive damages system in case of infringement of patent rights.