Intellectual Property Court caseloads increasing

The national-level Intellectual Property Court in Beijing has heard 5,121 cases, with 4,220 of them concluded since its establishment in 2019, according to a report released by the court on Friday.

The report also said that the cases received by the court last year nearly doubled from 2019 due to the continued rise in intellectual property disputes.

As a permanent division under China’s Supreme People’s Court, the IP court was set up to give final decisions on appeals related to intellectual property rights infringement, and it aims to help prevent inconsistency of legal application and improve the quality and efficiency of the trials related to IPR.

He Zhonglin, vice-president of the court, said at a news conference on Friday that the court has published two judgement guidelines, including 91 typical cases and 86 judging rules over the past two years, which has effectively promoted the unification of the ruling standard on trials related to IPR.

“Those typical cases covering the lawsuits such as trademarks, copyright and patent infringement would be studied by the judges from the lower-level courts, and there are a number of regular symposiums for courts to communicate,” said He.

Since IPR trials are complicated and demand specific knowledge and skills in the sector, He said, the court has selected 39 judges across the country, and some of them have interdisciplinary backgrounds to better fit the job.

According to the report, the court had held 114 professional meetings in the past two years to study difficult legal issues related to IPR and established a talent pool with 450 technical investigation officers covering more than 30 technical fields.

“It would take about a year for each IPR infringement case to find its way to the court in the lower court. But now in our court, it only takes an average of 120 days for one case to reach settlement,” said He.

According to the court, litigants who disagree with the rulings made by 32 intermediate people’s courts at the city or prefecture level, or by specialized IP courts, could appeal directly to the top court.

In 2020, the court also heard 376 IPR infringement cases related to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as some foreign countries, with 281 of them concluded.