Supreme People's Court Reports on Judicial IPR Protection in China 2013
On 21 April 2014, the Supreme People's Court of China (SPC) held a press briefing in Guangzhou on the release of Intellectual Property Protection by Chinese Courts in 2013.
According to the report, a total of 100,399 first-instance IPR cases were settled by the Chinese courts in 2013, of which 88,286 were civil cases (up 5.29% year-on-year), 2,901 were administrative cases (up 0.07%), and 9,212 were criminal cases (down 28%). As pointed out by Mr. Jin Kesheng, deputy chief judge of the IPR Tribunal of SPC, notwithstanding the overall slowdown in growth of IPR cases in China in 2013, foreign-related first-instance IPR civil cases, however, saw a rise at brisk pace of 18.75% over 2012.
Over the year, transparency in judicial process of IPR cases was further enhanced. Mr. Tao Kaiyuan, vice president of SPC, reported on the promulgation of the Interim Measures of SPC on Online Publication of IP Related Judicial Opinions in July 2013. As of the end of 2013, 61,368 effective IP related judicial opinions have been uploaded by the people's courts at different levels nationwide.
As for transparency in court trial, the Chinese courts have started to disclose the trials of high profile cases through different forms of media. Take the case of Qihoo 360 v. Tencent tried in November 2013, the hearing of the unfair competition case was made accessible to the public via television, newspaper, and the internet.
Also announced at the press briefing were the 10 leading IPR cases, 10 innovative IPR cases, and 50 typical IPR cases heard by the Chinese courts in year 2013.
