Court guideline aimed at streamlining cases
BEIJING — China will award higher compensation to victims of severe intellectual property infringements and consider recording dishonest litigations — such as malicious prosecutions — in the national credit information system to curb IP-related crimes, according to a guideline released by the Supreme People's Court.
The 26-item guideline, made public on Tuesday, focuses on the challenges and difficulties in IP cases. It attempts to lower the cost and duration of lawsuits while increasing compensation and relieving burdens on proving evidence.
The guideline responds to social concerns, pressing issues and the need to strengthen judicial protection, said Jiang Bixin, vice-president of the SPC, at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday. It also clarifies the applicable standards of IP-related laws in a timely manner, he added.
The equal protection of the IP legal rights of economic entities with different ownership structures or litigants of different nationalities is also emphasized. The guideline stresses the importance of targeted protection for IP cases of different types and areas, Jiang said.
He added that the SPC will work to apply the guidelines in the next stage to improve judicial protection of IP rights.
The IP Court at the SPC has made headway in promoting the unification of judicial standards for technology-related IP cases, according to an annual report.
“Unifying the standards for adjudicating patent and other technology-related IP cases is the primary goal of the court,” said the report released by the SPC on April 16.
On Jan 1, 2019, the first specialized IP court at the highest court level worldwide was officially revealed. The team accepted 1,945 technology-related cases in its first year, with 73.7 percent of them — or 1,433 cases — concluded.
IP judges at the court have made a number of benchmark judgments, and the “systematization project to unify judicial standards” has been applied, further promoting the unification of judicial standards for technology-related IP cases, said the report.
The SPC IP court exercises a final-instance judicial function by hearing appeals on patents, monopolies and other technologyrelated IP cases from across China. It also has the mission to further unify judicial standards for technology-related IP cases.
SPC judges have concluded 40 judicial rules from a section of 36 typical tech-related IP cases they heard in 2019. These reflect the trends in jurisdiction over complicated tech-related IP cases, according to the report.
Of the 40 new rules, 25 are from patent cases, five relate to legal procedures and the rest are about new plant varieties, tech secrets, computer software and monopoly deals.