Calculating Base Damages and Multipliers in Chinese Trademark Infringement
Base damages under PRC Trademark Law Article 63 follow strict evidentiary priority, with multipliers up to five times applied for willful infringement.
Article 67 PRC Civil Procedure Law
Meaning
Statutory rules governing burden of proof in Chinese civil litigation assign the obligation to present supporting evidence directly to the party making an affirmative legal assertion. Under article 67 PRC civil procedure law, litigants must produce materials that substantiate their factual claims or face adverse procedural consequences. People’s courts maintain authority to collect evidence independently when a party cannot obtain specific records for objective reasons or when the tribunal deems the material essential for determining the truth.
This dual mechanism balances private evidentiary responsibility with judicial investigative authority in complex commercial disputes. The statutory mandate applies across all civil proceedings within Mainland China, bounded by jurisdictional limits and specific statutory exceptions where burden shifting applies.
Judicial Intervention
Tribunals exercise discretionary authority to gather evidence when litigants demonstrate diligent but unsuccessful attempts to retrieve documents from government agencies or financial institutions. Under article 67 PRC civil procedure law, a court order can compel third parties to disclose bank records and tax filings that remain inaccessible to private litigants. Failure by third parties to comply with judicial investigation directives leads to court sanctions or administrative penalties.
Evidentiary Allocation
Litigants bear the operational consequence of unproven factual claims whenever supporting documentation remains incomplete or ambiguous. The legal framework of article 67 PRC civil procedure law dictates that an assertion unsupported by verified evidence carries no legal weight in trial judgment. Plaintiffs filing breach of contract claims must supply executed agreements and payment receipts to meet this statutory standard.
Procedural Limit
Judicial collection authority under this provision does not relieve private litigants of their foundational burden to investigate and substantiate their claims. Courts routinely reject broad requests for judicial evidence gathering when the requesting party fails to identify specific records or prove prior efforts to obtain them independently.