Judges from the Supreme People's Court (SPC) introduced the progress China has made in providing judicial protection for intellectual property rights at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on April 21.

According to Jiang Bixin, vice-president of the SPC, Chinese courts accepted 481,793 new IPR cases of various types and concluded 475,853 over the past year, respective year-on-year increases of 44.16 percent and 48.87 percent.

Jiang Bixin, vice-president of the SPC, speaks at the press conference. [Photo/court.gov.cn]

Jiang pointed out that the SPC has further improved the judicial protection system for IPR, raised the overall quality of intellectual properties , protected IPR owners’ legitimate rights and interests to the most extent, and given full play to the leading and exemplary role of judicial trials.

He also stressed the guideline on comprehensively enhancing judicial protection for IPR issued at the press conference.

Luo Dongchuan, another SPC vice-president who is also in charge of the top court’s IP court, briefed the four features of the IP court as follows:

Luo Dongchuan, the SPC vice-president and head of the IP Court, speaks at the conference. [Photo/court.gov.cn]

First, the court prioritizes the unification of the rules of adjudication. To this end, it took a variety of steps last year, including holding judges’ meetings, implementing a compulsory case retrieval rule, and improving the database of adjudication rules. It also released a number of benchmark cases to promote the unification of adjudication criterion.

Second, the court continues to innovate its trial mechanism, adhering to the principle of "protecting innovation in an innovative way". It explored the establishment of a collaborative trial mechanism for patent-related civil and administrative cases, made great efforts to solve the issue of a lengthy right protection period, and built a trial mode for technology-related IP cases.

Third, the court provides effective support for the national strategies of achieving innovation-driven development and building an intellectual property rights powerhouse.

Fourth, in terms of foreign exchanges, the court has strengthened communication and exchanges with all walks of life both at home and abroad, promoting the building of an IPR protection community.