Supreme Court Vice President Remarks on Adjudication of IP Cases
On 28 November 2011, vice-president of Supreme People's Court of the PRC Mr. Xi Xiaoming remarked on certain issues concerning adjudication of IP cases during a symposium. Mr. Xi emphasized the importance of referring to the legislative intent of relevant laws and regulations, administrative rules and judicial interpretations in adjudicating various kinds of cases. Highlights of some points he made included:
Copyright on the Internet
Some concepts, such as liability v. waiver, notification & removal v. fault liability, fault in ISP (internet service providers) infringement v. that in general tort, need to be differentiated with discretion. Except with obvious facts that infringement is committed under “known” or “should have known” circumstances, the rule of notification & removal is to be considered first in determination of the ISP’s infringement liability.
Patent infringement litigation
In case an invalidation request is filed during the time limit for defense in a patent infringement litigation, the decision regarding whether to suspend examination of the application for the patent in suit should be made according to specific conditions of individual cases, with reference to factors including innovativeness, R&D input, and contribution to economic growth of the patent.
Protection of well-known marks
The people’s courts are advised to hold fast to the legislative intent of duly extending the scope and reinforcing the degree of protection of a trademark in trying cases related to claims for well-known marks, in particular avoid the abusive use of the claims as a means of getting the title of a well-known mark.
Authentication of overseas evidence
Considering that the requirement in judicial interpretations for notarial procedure of overseas evidence is to help authenticate evidence, other manners of authentication may also be accepted as long as they serve the purpose.
Determination of damages
The people’s courts are encouraged to actively explore effective calculation methods to facilitate determination of damages, thereby ensuring reasonable compensation for the rights owners.
