On February 18, the first day of work after the Lunar New Year, the reporter ran into the ...... of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court
Geng Xi, director of the General Office of the Tribunal, is the "chief steward" of the Tribunal, and he does everything in every detail. On this day, she got up early, drove more than 20 kilometers to the unit, sorted out her appearance, and prepared to accompany the court leaders to greet the family members from all over the world.
The Tribunal currently has 278 personnel, about 70 per cent of whom are based in other places, and all of them arrived on time today. After finishing speaking, Geng Xi picked up the ** and began to arrange the work.
At around 8 o'clock, the court leaders patrolled the building to pay New Year's greetings, and everyone laughed and laughed, and did not let go of desk work. Immediately afterwards, the enlarged meeting of the sub-party group was held, and the members of the sub-party group and the heads of various departments attended the meeting.
At 9 o'clock, Xu Yanru, the presiding judge of the Fourth Collegial Court, had already put on her legal robe and sat in the tenth courtroom and rang the gavel. This is the first trial after the Chinese New Year, and Xu Yanru has made full preparations. He quipped that the most difficult part of the preparation process was "how to buy a ticket back to Beijing the day before".
At around 10 o'clock, the reporter was about to go to the multi-purpose hall of the court for an interview, but was "dominated" by Luo Xia, the presiding judge of the second collegial court. "How do you sell corn?".How much do soybeans cost?What variety of apples belong to?All the members of the Second Collegiate Court were talking about it. The reporter heard them discuss "Apple", and looked at the "Apple" in the promotional video that happened to be handled by the court in the mobile phone standard essential patent case, and suddenly felt the vastness of the "heaven and earth" in the field of technical intellectual property.
At half past two o'clock in the afternoon, the court held a full court meeting, and the black and pressed team went upstairs to hold a meeting. Two hours later, the party meetings of the branches were held. It wasn't until 5 o'clock that the scheduled time for the end of work arrived, but no one left, and the interview officially began at this time......
It came into being and lived up to its mission
Five years ago, Xu Yanru, who was the vice president of the Intellectual Property Division of the Zhejiang Provincial High People's Court, was steaming when she received a letter to the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court.
At that time, the Supreme People's Court Intellectual Property Court was still in a semi-construction site, and the construction team was carrying a sledgehammer to decorate the site, the dust was scattered, and the police officers had to wear masks and earmuffs to work. Xu Yanru didn't care, he was excited to feel that "his life will resonate here with the process of China's intellectual property trial rule of law."
Since the 60s of the last century, major developed countries and innovative countries have set up special courts for intellectual property rights, pushing the protection of intellectual property rights to a new height. With the progress of science and technology and the development of the times, China is constantly in line with the international community, if it cannot equally protect the legitimate rights and interests of intellectual property rights of domestic and foreign enterprises, it will inevitably affect China's technological innovation and development and the level of opening up to the outside world.
Although there were varying degrees of progress in intellectual property adjudication in various regions at that time, for the judges engaged in intellectual property adjudication, they had the most intuitive feeling of the situation of national intellectual property adjudication before the establishment of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court: "The adjudication standards of the second instance by the high courts are not only uniform across the country, but even in the province. "The dualistic separation of civil tort procedure and administrative invalidation procedure will seriously affect the efficiency of litigation, and many cases can only continue until the result of administrative litigation. "A lot of people are also concerned about the existence of local protections. Xu Yanru said that the referee standards are not uniform.
1. If problems such as the complexity of litigation procedures are not resolved, what will be eroded is the people's confidence in intellectual property adjudication.
In October 2018, from the perspective of the national strategy of building an intellectual property power and a world science and technology power, the Supreme People's Court was approved to establish an intellectual property tribunal to hear patent and other professional and technical intellectual property cases nationwide. "It has greatly inspired the intellectual property people across the country. Xu Yanru said.
At the end of 2018, on the eve of the listing of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court, the borrower borrowed the house again.
First, it borrowed a few offices from the Beijing Internet Court, and then recruited intellectual property adjudication talents from all over the country, and openly selected senior judges engaged in patent and other intellectual property adjudication work for experts, scholars, lawyers, patent holders and other relevant professionals in the field of intellectual property. He Jun is one of them.
At that time, He Jun was working as an associate professor at Tsinghua University Law School and had been working in the field of intellectual property for more than ten years. Knowing about the open selection of the Supreme People's Court Intellectual Property Court, He Jun thought carefully - he has passed the stage of "either promotion or leaving", and he will have a good life if he stays in school and concentrates on academics. Going to the court has to start all over again, and there are many challenges, and I don't know what the future holds. To go or not to go? "It's actually quite tangled. ”
It is foreseeable that the construction of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, including subsequent development, will certainly be a milestone in China's intellectual property adjudication undertakings. From the perspective of a lawyer, it would be a pity if there was no practical experience. From the point of view of personal development, there are not many opportunities to participate in the advancement of history. "I think it's good to finally find a combination of national needs and personal development. After receiving the support of the college leaders and his family, He Jun signed up.
In the past, when he told students about cases, "they used other people's things", but in the future, he will have to try cases by himself, and He Jun hopes to "continue to produce high-quality products".
After receiving the first case, she humbly asked her colleagues for advice, repeated the previous trial videos, carefully studied and analyzed the case, checked relevant materials, and made full preparations for the trial. At that time, when the epidemic was more tense, she successfully completed the first identity change through an online trial at home, "I still remember that wonderful feeling."
Yuan Xiaozhen has been in the Supreme People's Court Intellectual Property Court for five years, and she still lives in the dormitory of the National Judges College two blocks away from the National Judges College with more than 60 comrades selected from courts across the country. Although there is a bed and a table crammed into a very small room, being able to come to the Supreme Law from the place to exercise makes her very content, and the only trouble is that "I dare not fight with my family for a long time".
The comrades who lived together at the National Judges College formed a group, and everyone usually talked about work and life, and felt that it was fun to work overtime together. "During the lockdown of the epidemic, everyone gave each other haircuts, celebrated the New Year together, and provided emotional support for each other. Yuan Xiaozhen said.
If the atmosphere of the courtroom is summed up in one word, it is "volume". Ou Hongwei was the one who was the first to "roll" up in the courtroom.
At that time, I decided to come to court, but many of my colleagues around me did not support me. "As a judge in the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, the salary is good, and the children are still young, "you go to plant trees and give shade to future generations", but Ou Hongwei doesn't think so.
I love the cause of intellectual property adjudication, and I can look at the highest from the locality, and conversely look at a domain from the overall situation, which is a rare opportunity. "Ou Hongwei will come as he says. During the four years of working in the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court, Ou Hongwei "guarantees no rest on Saturday and no rest on Sunday", he arrives at work at half past five in the morning every day, and returns to the dormitory at the earliest in the evening.
Working overtime is not good for physical and mental health, but in fact, leaving home saves you from doing housework and taking care of your children, and you have nothing to do except work. Ou Hongwei, who has "nothing to do", uses these hours to read case files, write manuscripts, do research, etc., and has been far ahead in the annual caseload for four consecutive years, and he is busy filling every day in another country. "It's like going back to college, life is simple and pure, and it's enjoyable. Ou Hongwei said.
Five years later, the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court still borrows the Beijing Internet Court Building for office, and has grown from nearly 100 people when the court was established to nearly 300 now, and the office space is becoming more and more compact - less than 5 square meters per person. There were too many case files that crushed the floor, and the potholes had to be repaired. Surrounded by three tin cabinets, the dressing room. The legs of the table are uneven, and the two tables can be put together to be stable. In the office of the judges, the legs can barely sit down for four ......people
But it was here that this team from all over the world, who had abandoned their families and businesses and gathered together, did a good job in the intellectual property trial. As of December 31, 2023, the court has accepted a total of 18,924 cases and concluded 15,710 cases, with the quality and efficiency of trials significantly better than before the reform.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress conducted a special review and unanimously agreed that the pilot project has achieved the expected goals of reform and has successfully completed the tasks assigned by the Supreme People's Court.
Whether there is also intellectual property rights in the field
How far away is intellectual property?It could be a small chip incarnated on a spaceship nine days away. How close is intellectual property to us?It may have appeared in the orchard of Uncle Zhang, a fruit farmer in Shandong.
I didn't break the law, we planted this fruit tree in the whole village!"I don't understand what infringement is!This is the same thing that Uncle Zhang, a fruit farmer who runs a plantation in Shandong, said to Xu Shichao, an assistant judge of the Supreme People's Court Intellectual Property Court, several times. After living for most of his life, he became a defendant in a daze, Uncle Zhang's stomach full of bitter water could not be poured, and he would "bomb" Xu Shichao whenever he was free.
Uncle Zhang is the defendant in a dispute over infringement of the rights of new plant varieties, because of the infringement of propagation materials without permission, but he doesn't understand why the fruit farmers who operate plantations in the village plant like this, so he broke the law
Xu Shichao patiently answered questions after the verdict to Uncle Zhang, informing him that if he planted the propagating materials of the authorized varieties for commercial purposes, it would be an infringement.
Most of the disputes over the infringement of new plant varieties are directly related to farmers, and "it is necessary to correct the villagers' concepts through interpretation of the law and reasoning, even if everyone is like this, it does not mean that this is correct." Xu Shichao said that when the uncle and aunt in the village saw that others were sentenced to compensation, they would not infringe on the infringement anymore after understanding the situation.
In fact, it is not only Uncle Zhang, but also the lack of awareness of the rule of law in rural areas, who may think that intellectual property rights are a strange right that is out of reach. Dong Ning, assistant judge of the Second Collegial Court, said that sometimes, the infringement of intellectual property rights occurs in a small seed in the field, "We will treat everyone equally, sit on the ground in the farmland, and guard the small seed tightly." ”
Talking about the professionalism of intellectual property trials, Dong Ning also said that he himself was a law major and did not understand the knowledge of science and engineering at all, but in order to handle the case, he had to pick up the physical chemistry textbook in high school again to study. "After a long time, the field of discovering new varieties of plants is quite interesting, and now I can quickly identify the new varieties of fruits when I go to the supermarket. ”
The "vanillin" case in 2021 has attracted widespread attention in the society, and the criminal and civil disputes involved in this case have lasted more than ten years, with the court of first instance of the civil case finding infringement and awarding compensation of 3.5 million yuan, and the Supreme Court of Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China changed the judgment of compensation to 15.9 billion yuan.
To make such a large reversal of the judgment, the judge in charge of the second instance, Liu Xiaojun, said frankly: "I have taken great risks and pressures. ”
When receiving the case, Liu Xiaojun pondered repeatedly and raised a series of questions: whether the defendant had committed an act of infringing on the technical secrets involved in the case, what was the focus of the dispute between the two parties, and whether the liability for damages determined by the original trial court was reasonable and ......After full consideration, he listed nine considerations and submitted them to the collegial panel. "After several exchanges of opinions, the collegial panel further ascertained more facts of infringement by comprehensively grasping the factual basis, and finally supported my 8-point consideration and made a revision of the judgment. ”
Liu Xiaojun wrote a judgment of more than 40,000 words based on 8 opinions, and the brilliance of this reasonable and compatible document is still talked about by the industry. He said, "The most difficult thing to write a verdict that can stand the test is to convince yourself that in addition to clarifying the facts, the judge must also clarify his thinking and constantly change his perspective to convince both sides and the whole society." ”
With more and more cases handled, He Jun continued to summarize and think and found some problems in handling cases.
For example, when the judgment was reversed in an appellate case, He Jun found that the parties provided a large number of facts in the first instance, but because the judge of the first instance did not have a thorough grasp of the legal logic, these facts were ignored when applying the law, resulting in a bias in the judgment.
As Comrade *** said in "On Practice", "we cannot immediately understand what we feel, and only what we understand can we feel it more deeply." He Jun said that when judges hear cases, they need to determine the facts and apply the law, and there is also a similar logical relationship between the two, "Only by deeply understanding the logical structure of the law can we discover those facts that are indispensable for the trial of cases." ”
Technical intellectual property cases are highly specialized and often miss the slightest point. China's intellectual property system started late, and some grassroots intellectual property judges have little trial experience, little professional field knowledge, and rely mechanically on judicial interpretations when handling cases, so they do not have a good grasp of many details in the case, but we must be confident, "Just like a boy buying lipstick for his girlfriend, he may not get the color difference at all." It's a process that takes time. He Jun said.
Use stable mechanics to bring out unstable teams
Talking about the biggest problem facing the court at present, the interviewees invariably mentioned the instability of the current team, and the judges, especially the judges' assistants, mainly rely on the exchange of personnel sent by the courts from various places to the court for training.
On the two walls of the corridor on the 9th floor of the Supreme People's Court Intellectual Property Court, one side is a headshot of a police officer in the court, and the other is a headshot of a police officer who used to work here.
The iron-clad intellectual property court, the flowing police. With such a large turnover of personnel, how can the quality of cases be ensured?
Since the establishment of the court, 262 people from 160 units across the country have come to the court to carry out post exchanges and training", "many judges' assistants have just been brought with them, and they will return to their original units when they expire", "I have brought about 30 judges' assistants since I worked here", ......During the interview, everyone "complained" about this matter.
In order to ensure that the quality of the case is not affected, the court leaders held several meetings and finally decided to establish a set of mechanisms in which people can play a role even if people come and go. Lang Guimei, Commissioner of Party Affairs and Integrity of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court, said.
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. Liao Jibo is the director of the litigation service center, and under her leadership, the annual typical cases and adjudication gist are scrutinized, polished, and verified word by word by her and other colleagues in the litigation service center around the Spring Festival every year, which are well received by front-line judges.
The reporter saw that these two thick books are necessary for the judges' desks, and many judges said that "the answer can always be found in the book when they are indecided."
In order to ensure the uniformity of its own adjudication standards, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court has continuously improved the supervision and restraint mechanism for the operation of adjudication power. In the five years since its establishment, the tribunal has convened a total of 271 professional judges' meetings and discussed 1,406 cases. "We hold our meetings once a week on Thursdays, one day at a time, and often until the evening. Liao Jibo introduced that if there are no previous adjudication rules to refer to, then it is necessary to go to the judges' conference.
The judges' meeting has very high requirements, all of them must make PPT, and there must be a trial report with complete format elements, and all matters are clear at a glance. Liao Jibo said that after the judges' meeting, the collegial panel should repeatedly polish the judgment documents. "Because we represent the Supreme People's Court, any document that comes out of us will be watched by the whole society, so we must pursue the extreme. ”
At the same time, the court actively explores the mechanism of coordinated trial of patent civil and administrative cases, and strives to promote the simultaneous appearance of related cases in court, coordinated trial, and simultaneous adjudication in the appeal stage, effectively shorten the dispute resolution cycle and ensure the uniform interpretation of claims. "The case heard by the civil bank is like a patient with multiple diseases who is admitted to the hospital, and doctors from different departments are synchronized**, which will greatly speed up the discharge time. Gao Xue, assistant judge of the litigation service center, said.
Downward guidance is an extremely important function of the Tribunal. In 2022, the court launched a system internally, under which each judge must fill in a case information feedback form through the case-handling system after the case is concluded, and the court leader will approve and issue it to the line court, mainly for whether there are problems in the writing and production of judgment documents and case file binding of the court of first instance found in the process of case handling. Lang Guimei introduced: "Although this is a self-increase of the court, and it does increase the burden on judges, but in the long run, it is definitely a burden reduction." With a starting point for the adjudication and management offices of the lower courts, many flaws can be effectively resolved. ”
The court also conducts in-depth analysis of development and reform cases through regular court trainings such as the "New Knowledge Lecture Hall", explores the establishment of a normalized mechanism for talent exchange and training with local courts and the State Intellectual Property Office, and cultivates and reserves a group of high-quality, professional and compound intellectual property talents for the country, and promotes the overall improvement of the intellectual property adjudication capacity and level of courts across the country, so that the whole country can play a game of chess, use the same set of gavels, and talk about the same legal principles.
The key to leading a good team is people. The court divided the adjudicators into 18 collegial panels according to their needs, and each collegial panel was led by the presiding judge, who had rich experience in adjudication and management. And the judges and judges' assistants are like stars around the sun, although there are many of them, they do not hinder their regular operation and shine.
Gathering is a fire, scattering is full of stars", every police officer who has been put into the "alchemy furnace" of the court will leave the courtroom with unique skills, bringing the experience of technical intellectual property trials to courts across the country.
This kind of talent training is also different from the special training in the classroom, they have become the backbone of the business after returning to the original unit from the front line of practice, which also has a direct impact on reducing the appeal rate of first-instance intellectual property cases in various places. The deputy secretary of the party group and vice president of the court, Xu Zhonglin, looked at the overall situation from one domain, and he said with a smile: "This can be regarded as a kind of litigation source management." ”
In the new journey ahead, I believe that the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court will continue to make good use of various legal measures, improve the system of adjudication rules, improve the adjudication mechanism system, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, effectively stimulate innovation, and provide strong judicial services and guarantees for the realization of innovation-driven development and the construction of an intellectual property power. At the symposium on the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the court, Yan Jianguo, a deputy to the National People's Congress, expressed a good message.
*: People's Court Daily reporter: Bai Longfei |Trainee Reporter: Zhang Yue |Correspondent: Lin Yu.