Recently, at the invitation of the Printing Industry Association of Pudong New Area, the procurators of Zhangjiang District People's Procuratorate attended the notification meeting on compliance of intellectual property rights of printing enterprises and the training on laws and regulations. At the meeting, the prosecutor introduced a compliance case involving printing enterprises, and interpreted the Guidelines for Intellectual Property Compliance of Printing Enterprises (for Trial Implementation) and related cases.
From March to September 2020, the suspect Ding, as a salesman of Shanghai H company, was entrusted by others for many times. Without authorization of the trademark owner, he made use of the small contract approval authority granted by the company to sign contracts and collect fees on behalf of Shanghai H company. Shanghai H company printed more than 80000 packaging boxes with other people's registered trademark logo.
According to the prosecutor, the problems of the enterprises involved in the case and the resulting legal risks are mainly in two key links, which are often the places where printing enterprises are prone to problems.
First, printing verification. The suspect Ding Mou illegally undertook the business of printing other people's registered trademarks for the purpose of helping his friends. He failed to verify the trademark registration certificate and authorization documents according to law, and finally violated the criminal law.
The second is permission management. The enterprises involved delegated the approval authority for some businesses of printing and packaging to the salesmen. At the same time, they did not strictly supervise in accordance with the system, and did not issue early warning from acceptance to approval to production and shipment, resulting in legal risks for the enterprises.
"Packaging and printing industry, as a professional field closely contacted with intellectual property protection, should actually pay more attention to eliminating potential risks and strengthening compliance management." According to the prosecutor, the problems exposed in the case of Shanghai H Company and Mr. Ding suspected of illegally manufacturing registered trademark logos are also representative. In view of the problems exposed by some printing enterprises, such as weak legal risk awareness and loopholes in authority settings, prosecutors believe that the fundamental way to solve the problem is to trace back to the source.
The People's Procuratorate of Zhangjiang District, Pudong New Area has combed more than 1000 intellectual property cases that it has accepted in the past three years, and found that more than 90% of the criminal targets involved trademarks and works. Such criminal targets are closely related to the printing field, which makes it highly consistent to help printing enterprises resolve legal risks and improve the traceability of such cases, Therefore, the People's Procuratorate of Zhangjiang District, Pudong New Area, together with the Printing Industry Association of Pudong New Area, has formulated the Guidelines for the Compliance of Intellectual Property Rights of Printing Enterprises (for Trial Implementation) (hereinafter referred to as the Work Guidelines), which provides a positive guidance for printing enterprises to prevent intellectual property infringement risks, operate in compliance and develop healthily by issuing the Work Guidelines.
The work guideline divides printing enterprises into three categories: publication printing enterprises, packaging and decoration printing enterprises, and other printing enterprises. The risk level, prevention and control focus, and effective measures of intellectual property compliance are determined according to the characteristics of each category of enterprises. In particular, in terms of printing verification, on the basis of such laws and regulations as the Regulations on the Administration of the Printing Industry and the Regulations on the Administration of Intellectual Property Rights of Enterprises, the printing of non registered trademark logos, geographical indication logos, and printing of works involving fine arts and photography were included for the first time, trying to fill the gaps and deficiencies in the operation specifications in practical work. It is emphasized in the work instructions that the certification materials for the approval of the use of special geographical indications provided by the client shall be verified when printing geographical indications; Where a geographical indication has been registered as a collective trademark, the certification materials of the collective members provided by the trustor shall be verified; Where a geographical indication has been registered as a certification trademark, the certification materials for the licensed use provided by the client shall be verified. If works of words, art, photography, etc. are involved, the Work Registration Certificate provided by the client or the certificate of authorization of the copyright owner shall also be verified and kept.
The work instructions divide the printing business activities into four processes: business acceptance, event approval, production and processing, inspection and shipment, and define the principles and standards for implementing different process management measures in different links, so as to timely find out the compliance risks in different links and put forward handling suggestions, and avoid the business activities entering the next link "with problems" before the risks are eliminated.
based on the "Five Systems of Printing Industry Printing Management" provided by the Pudong New Area Printing Industry Association, the work instructions further clarified the supporting measures such as performance evaluation, accountability, and file management to ensure the efficient operation of the five systems on the basis of establishing and improving the printing verification system, printing registration system, printing material storage system, printing material delivery system, and printing activity defective product destruction system.
