Courts’ intellectual property cases win respect

China is building up its international image and the credibility of its judicial system through dealing with high-profile foreign-related intellectual property cases, a senior official from China’s top court said. “Chinese courts have been upholding equal protections while hearing foreign-related IP disputes no matter where litigants are from,” Tao Kaiyuan, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court, told

Foreign IP cases involving litigants from the United States made up one-third of the total, and they were mainly heard by courts in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang, according to Ms Tao.

Most of the plaintiffs in the disputes are from the US, and the money involved in many of the cases was more than 100 million yuan (FJ$31.49m), she added.

IP cases involving foreign individuals and companies represent 20 per cent of the total, according to the top court in an April disclosure.

“We fully respect foreign litigants’ rights and strictly abide by international IP rules when handling such cases,” Ms Tao said.

A high-profile lawsuit involved US basketball legend Michael Jordan. In December 2016, the top court ended the four-year-long trademark dispute by issuing a verdict, in which it ruled the registered trademark of Chinese company Qiaodan Sports infringed on Jordan’s right to his name and violated provisions of the Trademark Law.