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On April 25, 2021, one day before the 21st World Intellectual Property Day, Pudong New Area People's Court of Shanghai (Pudong Court) held a press conference to release the White Paper on Providing Judicial Services and Safeguards for Building a Business Environment Favorable to Foreign-related IPR protection and to share its judicial experience in comprehensively strengthening IPR protection, fairly and efficiently hearing foreign-related cases according to law, equally protecting the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese and foreign parties, and serving and safeguarding the development of a favorable business environment. At the conference, Jin Minzhen, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Senior Judge (Second Rank) of Pudong Court, distributed the White Papers to representatives of foreign companies and briefed the trials of IPR cases involving foreign companies. Xu Jun, Head of Intellectual Property Division, introduced 10 typical cases. The conference was presided over by Zhang Haijuan, Director of Press Center, and attended by some deputies to Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, members of the CPPCC Shanghai Municipal Committee, the People's Government of Pudong New Area, China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Administration, China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lin-gang Special Area Administration, as well as representatives of foreign companies.
According to the briefing, from the establishment
of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (SFTZ) in September 2013 to the end of
2020, Pudong Court had accepted a total of 589 foreign-related (and SFTZ-related)
IPR cases, including 397 civil ones, 191 criminal ones and 1 administrative one.
In addition, it accepted 2,326 IIPR cases involving foreign companies.
The White Paper shows that these cases present the following characteristics. First, the number
of cases was on the rise. This indicates that foreign companies have become more
and more confident in judicial protection of intellectual property in China. Second,
most cases were settled by judgment, and plaintiffs had a high winning rate. Besides,
IPR protection awareness of Chinese enterprises keeps strengthening, as evidenced
by the fact that many cases in which Chinese companies took the initiative to file
lawsuits against foreign companies or vigorously defended themselves against "excessive
rights protection" were supported by court. Third, the amount of compensation
was on the rise. This manifests the court¡¯s determination to uphold justice. Fourth,
most cases arose from infringement, the legal relations involved were becoming increasingly
complex, and more and more foreign companies filed lawsuits for several causes.
Fifth, rights protection methods were diversified. The efforts to better defend
intellectual property from criminal infringement demonstrate the court's determination
to crack down on infringement.
How to protect foreign-related intellectual
property rights equally according to law is an important issue that must be addressed
for the improvement of business environment. At the press conference, Jin Minzhen
specially introduced the experience and practice of Pudong Court in comprehensively
strengthening the judicial services and safeguards for foreign-related IPR protection.
On one hand, it implements strict protection policies, increases the compensation
for infringement and lawfully supports the punitive damages claims of right holders
especially for willful infringement and under serious circumstances, with the maximum
amount of compensation awarded in a single case reaching 10 million yuan. On the
other hand, it conducts mediation of foreign-related disputes, participates in the
global intellectual property governance, works together with WIPO Arbitration and
Mediation Shanghai Service, the first international arbitration and mediation organization
in China, to jointly explore the establishment of a working mechanism linking litigation
and mediation of foreign-related IPR cases. So far, 4 foreign-related IPR cases
have been mediated successfully. Besides, it insists on equal protection to safeguard
the legitimate rights and interests of parties concerned, adjusts and guides competitive
behaviors to regulate the market competition order, prohibits abuse of rights to
actively safeguard the social and public interests, and improves the mechanism linking
administrative law enforcement and criminal justice to promote three-in-one protection.
With several measures taken, the court has been constantly strengthening foreign-related
IPR protection and providing better and more efficient judicial services for the
building of a favorable business environment.
In recent years, the Intellectual
Property Division of Pudong Court has been successively rated as
National Advanced Collective for Combating Infringement
and Counterfeit, National Advanced Collective for Intellectual Property Trials and
Advanced Collective of National Courts. Pudong Court was also elected as the Best
Court for Intellectual Property Protection by the Quality Brands Protection Committee,
China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment in 2020.
At the conference, Pudong Court also released
10 typical cases of foreign-related IPR protection. These 10 cases cover punitive
damages, infringement damages, copyright protection of animation images and other
fields, which fully reflect its adjudicative approaches for new-type and complicated
foreign-related IPR cases, providing a reference for the resolution of similar disputes.
These cases have been either published on the Gazette of the Supreme People's
Court or rated as Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases in
Chinese Courts, Top 10 Typical Intellectual Property Cases in Shanghai, etc.
It was announced that Pudong Court will continue
to strengthen IPR protection in the future, equally protect the legitimate rights
of Chinese and foreign parties, and actively create a market-oriented, law-based
and international business environment. It will act on the new development philosophy
and establish a new development paradigm to drive high-quality development, so as
to make greater contribution to supporting high-level reform and opening-up of the
Pudong New Area and building Pudong into a pioneer area for socialist modernization.
