On 13 September 2020, the Supreme People's Court of China (SPC) issued the Guiding Opinions on the Adjudication of Civil Cases of Intellectual Property Rights Involving E-Commerce Platforms ("the SPC Opinions"), providing more detailed guidance, drawing from courts' experience in trial practice, with respect to the actions to be taken by parties in coping with internet IP disputes.

 

For instance, Article 11 of the SPC Opinions provides several concrete examples of an e-commerce platform operator's "constructive knowledge" of an infringing act, which is a trigger to its joint liability in failing to stop infringing behaviours under the E-Commerce Law (effective 2019). Also, the SPC Opinions cite in Article 9 circumstances for the applicability of injunctive measures, on the basis of SPC's provision in 2019 for the application of preliminary injunction specifically in IP dispute cases.

 

In respect of the notification of infringement issued by a right owner, apart from such basic contents as certification of rights, the right owner's personal data, and prima facie evidence of infringement, the SPC Opinions further stipulate in Article 5 that the right owner needs to provide in writing about the authenticity of the notification. And for a notification of patent infringement, the e-commerce platform operator may request a patent owner to submit a comparative analysis of relevant technical features or an evaluation report in cases of utility model patent or design patent.