On May 30th, the China-EU Seminar on Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property took place at Tongji University. The seminar was guided by the Supreme People's Court, co-hosted by the Shanghai High People¡¯s Court (SHPC) and Tongji University, and co-organized by the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property at Tongji University and the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court. Tao Kaiyuan, Vice President of the Supreme People's Court, Vice President of the China Law Society (CLS), and President of the Intellectual Property Law Association of CLS; Jia Yu, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and President of the SHPC, as well as President of the Chinese Association of Criminal Law; Zheng Qinghua, Secretary of the Party Committee of Tongji University and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Klaus Bacher, Presiding Judge of the 10th Civil Division of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany; and Rui Wenbiao, Director General of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration (SIPA), were present at the seminar and delivered speeches. The seminar was joined by over 70 participants, including judges from the Supreme People's Court and courts in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong, and other regions, alongside judges from the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, the Local Division Munich of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), the Munich I Regional Court, and the Regional Court of D¨¹sseldorf. Experts and scholars from Tongji University and the Intellectual Property Law Association of CLS also participated.

Vice President Tao Kaiyuan highlighted that convening this seminar is a concrete step to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's key instructions on artificial intelligence (AI) development and governance, made during his Shanghai inspection on April 29th. It is of great significance, aligning closely with technological advancements and international frontiers. He highlighted the significance of intellectual property (IP) in driving scientific and technological innovation. In-depth research on IP boundaries and rules is crucial to energize innovation and boost technological and economic progress. We must also focus on how judicial IP protection safeguards innovation, leveraging its role in fostering creativity, ensuring fair competition, and promoting economic, cultural, and open development. Balancing rights relief with technological tolerance is key to enhancing social welfare. Moreover, China-EU IP exchanges and cooperation are vital for advancing global IP governance. By building on this cooperation, we can elevate global IP exchanges to new heights, fueling continuous innovation worldwide.

President Jia Yu thanked Chinese and foreign experts and scholars for their support of Shanghai courts. He stressed the need to keep pace with the times and uphold judicial responsibility to safeguard scientific and technological innovation. He called for deeper judicial exchanges and cooperation with other countries in intellectual property, along with closer coordination with relevant institutions, to create a more robust framework for IP protection. It is essential to focus on the primary responsibilities and core tasks, aiming to establish a leading position in IP protection through superior judicial quality and efficiency. Continuous exploration of judicial adjudication rules for scientific and technological innovations in "high-tech, precision-oriented, and specialized" fields such as AI should be strengthened, and the mechanism for adjudicating foreign-related intellectual property cases should be optimized. He also underscored the need for reform and innovation, leveraging more precise digital empowerment to facilitate the transformation of intellectual property protection. He advocated deeper integration of AI technologies, advancing digital models for new case types such as AI and data rights protection, and strengthening international cooperation to jointly tackle emerging IP challenges in the new technological era, thereby enhancing collective judicial protection efforts.