Can intellectual property crimes be prosecuted?

No. According to Article 138 of the Judicial Interpretation of the Criminal Procedure Law, if the victim suffers material losses due to criminal infringement of his personal rights or destruction of property by criminals, he has the right to file an incidental civil lawsuit during the criminal proceedings. Intellectual property is represented as intellectual achievement and is a kind of intangible property. The crime of intellectual property infringement involves neither the infringement of personal rights nor the destruction of tangible property by criminals. According to the above judicial interpretation, the victim should not file an incidental civil lawsuit.

Legal Basis

Article 5 of "Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Applicable Legal Issues in the Trial of Patent Dispute Cases"

Litigation filed for infringement of patent rights , shall be under the jurisdiction of the people's court at the place where the infringement occurred or where the defendant is domiciled. The place of infringement includes: the place where the products accused of infringing the invention or utility model patent rights are manufactured, used, offered for sale, sold, imported, etc.; the place where the use of the patented method is carried out; and the place where the products directly obtained according to the patented method are carried out. The place where the acts of using, offering for sale, selling, and importing are carried out; the place where the acts of manufacturing, offering for sale, selling, importing, etc. of patented design products are carried out; the place where the acts of counterfeiting others' patents are carried out. The place where the infringement results of the above-mentioned infringement occurred.