In the five years since its establishment, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court has accepted 18,924 cases and concluded 15,710 cases
The appellate trial mechanism for intellectual property cases at the national level has achieved remarkable results
On February 22, the Information Office held a press conference to introduce the operation of the appeal mechanism for intellectual property cases at the national level. Tao Kaiyuan, Vice President of the Supreme People's Court and a second-level official, said that after five years of practical operation, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court has established a national-level intellectual property case appeal and trial mechanism, which has enriched and improved China's intellectual property judicial protection system.
The quality and efficiency of trials are significantly better than those of the trial mechanism before the reform.
According to reports, since its establishment on January 1, 2019, as of December 31, 2023, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court has accepted a total of 18,924 cases and concluded 15,710 cases.
Give full play to the advantages of centralized adjudication, and effectively encourage and ensure scientific and technological innovation. The court implements the concept that the protection of intellectual property rights is the protection of innovation, adheres to strict protection, increases the judicial protection of intellectual property rights in key core technologies, key fields, and emerging industries, and promotes the development of new quality productive forces. Increasing the intensity of infringement compensation, there are more and more cases of high damages, and punitive damages will be applied in 8 cases in 2023.
Effectively maintain fair competition in the market and help build a unified national market. While effectively protecting patents and other legitimate monopoly rights, the courts also perform their judicial duties of anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition in accordance with the law. In a number of cases, it has been determined that the sued acts constitute a monopoly, and the judicial interpretations on anti-monopoly civil litigation that were drafted will be released soon. The protection of technical secrets has been increased, and the "vanillin" case, "melamine" case, and "rubber antioxidant" case have all exceeded 100 million yuan.
Coordinate the promotion of domestic rule of law and foreign-related rule of law, and serve high-level opening up. In a number of cases, Chinese and foreign parties reached a package settlement to substantively resolve cross-border disputes with "Oriental experience". Actively explore international frontier issues and contribute China's wisdom to the international governance of intellectual property.
Continue to deepen reform and innovation, and continuously improve the intellectual property litigation mechanism. The court ensures the uniform application of law through the system of professional judges' conferences and the regular release of the gist of the judgment and typical cases. Explore the coordinated trial of patent civil and administrative cases, take the lead in establishing a "national court technical investigation talent pool" and a sharing mechanism, establish the country's first technical intellectual property adjudication database, vigorously promote first-class litigation, and promote the improvement of trial quality and efficiency.
Tao Kaiyuan said that as a new thing in judicial reform, there are still problems in the current operation of the court, such as the functional orientation and basic guarantee that need to be further optimized and strengthened. In the next step, on the basis of adhering to the existing direction of reform, we will continue to improve the appeal and trial mechanism of intellectual property cases at the national level by further deepening the reform, so as to better support and serve Chinese modernization.
New types of disputes involving new fields and new forms of business such as artificial intelligence, big data, and gene technology are constantly emerging.
In recent years, malicious litigation in the field of intellectual property has attracted widespread attention. In this regard, Zhou Xiang, vice president of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court and a first-class senior judge, introduced that when the Supreme People's Court revised the Provisions on the Causes of Action in Civil Cases in 2011, it added a new category of causes of action, "disputes over liability for damages caused by malicious filing of intellectual property litigation", which provides a special way for defendants who have suffered losses due to malicious litigation to claim compensation; In June 2021, the Reply to the Defendant's Claim for Compensation for Reasonable Expenses on the Grounds of Abuse of Rights by the Plaintiff in Intellectual Property Infringement Litigation further regulates malicious litigation in the field of intellectual property. In 2023, the court made malicious litigation or abuse of rights bear adverse legal consequences in three cases, demonstrating the judicial orientation of advocating parties to follow the principle of good faith and not abuse their rights.
With the rapid economic and social development, especially the rapid progress of science and technology, new situations and new characteristics have emerged in the judicial protection of intellectual property rights. Xu Zhonglin, vice president of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court and a first-class senior judge, said.
The number of cases continues to grow, and the amount of subject matter involved is increasing day by day. Over the past five years, the average annual growth rate of technology intellectual property and monopoly cases accepted by the court has been 27%, of which the average annual growth rate of invention patent infringement cases has been 309%；The increasing number of cases in which the amount of compensation claimed by the parties and awarded by the court exceeds 100 million yuan reflects the strong demand for judicial protection of intellectual property rights due to the development of science and technology.
Cases involve an ever-expanding technological frontier, and new types of disputes are constantly emerging. The proportion of cases involving strategic emerging industries accepted by the court has increased from about 1 4 in 2021 to nearly 1 3 in 2023, and new types of disputes involving new fields and new forms of business such as artificial intelligence, big data, and gene technology continue to emerge, putting forward new demands for judicial protection rules and systems.
The geographical distribution of cases is uneven, and there are many related cases. Over the past five years, more than 70% of the cases accepted by the court come from six provinces: Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Shanghai. At the same time, more and more IP-related cases are being heard by courts around the world.
In the face of new situations and new problems, it is necessary to accurately grasp the characteristics of intellectual property cases, which are highly growth, professional, international, and co-ordinated. According to Xu Zhonglin, the next step will be to focus on the following aspects: deepening the reform of the concept of intellectual property adjudication, adhering to the concept of strict protection, active justice, and overall coordination of intellectual property adjudication; Improving the intellectual property adjudication system includes not only deepening the reform of the appeal and adjudication mechanism for intellectual property cases at the national level, but also further optimizing the layout and functional allocation of local specialized intellectual property adjudication institutions; Improve the intellectual property adjudication mechanism and accelerate the formulation of the special procedure law for intellectual property litigation; Enhance the capacity of intellectual property adjudication, and vigorously promote the regularization, specialization, professionalism and internationalization of the intellectual property adjudication team.
China has increasingly become one of the preferred places for international intellectual property litigation.
The trial of foreign-related intellectual property cases is a prominent highlight of the work of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court. By the end of 2023, the court had accepted a total of 1,678 foreign-related parties and concluded 1,198 cases, accounting for nearly 1 10 of the court's casesAmong the administrative cases of invention patent authorization and confirmation accepted by the court, foreign-related cases accounted for 1 3.
Tao Kaiyuan said that China has become the country with the largest number of cases of patents and new varieties of plants, the courts have formed a number of benchmark judgments and have had an important impact at home and abroad, more and more foreign enterprises choose to settle intellectual property disputes in Chinese courts, and China has increasingly become one of the preferred places for international intellectual property litigation.
The protection of intellectual property rights has been the focus and hot spot of the international community for a long time. According to reports, the court services are open to the outside world at a high level, actively fulfill the obligations of international intellectual property treaties, and properly hear every foreign-related case in accordance with the law; Adhere to the equal protection of Chinese and foreign rights holders in accordance with the law, substantively resolve cross-border disputes, and promote international governance of intellectual property rights, which has won high praise from foreign parties.
On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) wrote a congratulatory letter to praise China's achievements in judicial protection of intellectual property rights. Tao Kaiyuan said that according to the work plan, this year will cooperate with the World Intellectual Property Organization to hold a judicial seminar on major intellectual property rights countries in Hangzhou, and will also hold judicial seminars and cooperation with the United States and the European Union on intellectual property rights.
Judicial adjudication of foreign-related intellectual property rights is an important window for China's foreign-related rule of law, and Chinese courts will, as always, attach great importance to strengthening the adjudication of foreign-related intellectual property rights. Tao Kaiyuan said that we should always adhere to the principle of equal protection, so that enterprises from all over the world can invest in China more at ease, rest assured and smooth; pay more attention to judicial transparency and procedural friendliness, and enhance the sense of judicial fairness; Earnestly fulfill international obligations, improve the convenience of litigation, demonstrate the integrity and responsibility of major countries, and contribute experience and wisdom to the world.
*:People**.