民法典视角下知识产权民事制裁制度的废止

The Abolition of Intellectual Property Civil Sanctions System from the Perspective of Civil Code

我国民事制裁制度源于《民法通则》第134条第3款,随后被引入到知识产权民事审判实践中。司法机关通过罚款、收缴、没收违法所得,对于应受行政处罚但尚未受到处罚的知识产权违法行为进行主动干预。然而,各地法院对民事制裁措施的适用范围、措施和条件的把握存在显著差异。种种适用乱象的成因在于民事制裁制度本身存有缺陷。民事制裁本质上是一种准行政处罚,其与民法规范的取向格格不入。我国《民法典》不再包含民事制裁条款,《著作权法》和商标法相关司法解释中的民事制裁规定已然缺乏民法依据。在目前全面加强知识产权保护的战略背景下,应当将民事制裁进行制度归位。一方面,将民事制裁措施回归为行政机关的行政处罚措施,法院不得在民事案件裁判中适用;另一方面,知识产权民事保护中的惩罚性赔偿制度与知识产权行政执法机制进行有机协作,共同发挥对严重侵权行为的惩戒和威慑功能。

The mechanism of China civil sanctions originated from Article 134,paragraph 3 of General Principles of Civil Law was subsequently introduced into the practice of intellectual property civil trials.By making decisions of fines,seizures,and confiscation of illegal incomes,judicial authorities actively intervene into the punishment of illegal acts that should be subject to administrative penalties but have not yet been punished.However,there are significant differences in the applicability,measures and conditions of civil sanctions among courts of different regions.The reasons for this inconsistency lie in the unclear nature of civil sanctions and fundamental flaws in this mechanism.It is essentially a kind of quasi-administrative punishment,which is incompatible with the normative orientation of civil law.China Civil Code no longer contains provisions of civil sanctions,which makes the Copyright Law and the civil sanctions provisions in the relevant judicial interpretations of Trademark Law no longer have basis of civil law.Under the current strategy of strengthening intellectual property protection,civil sanctions in the field of intellectual property law should be put into the right place.On one hand,the specific measures of civil sanctions should be returned to administrative penalties by administrative authorities and the courts have no power to give such sanctions;on the other hand,the mechanism of punitive damages and the mechanism of administrative punishment should cooperate organically to play the function as deterrence and sanction for serious infringements.