Leading the way: Supreme Court sets the IP rules

This past year was another important year in the development of intellectual property law and practice in China. The recent efforts of the Supreme People's Court of China (SPC) to guide the interpretation of certain laws and legal principles by lower Chinese courts in IP-related cases has been exemplary of China's move toward creating a more robust and efficient legal system for IP.

PART ONE

In response to a sharp rise of administrative cases involving trademarks, the SPC issued the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Administrative Cases involving the Granting and Confirmation of Trademarks (最高人民法院关于审理商标授权确权行政案件若干问题的意见) (the Opinions) on April 20 2010 to provide much needed guidance for lower courts on some persistent and emerging issues. The Opinions provide guidance pertinent to administrative lawsuits brought by interested parties against the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (Trab) in cases involving rejected trademark applications, oppositions and cancellations.