Supreme People's Court, Annual Report on Intellectual Property Cases (2010) (Abstract)

(Issued by the Supreme People's Court on April 13 2011.)

Fa Ban [2011] No.81

In 2010, the Intellectual Property Division of the Supreme People's Court accepted a total of 313 new intellectual property cases, a 5% increase over the number in 2009. Additionally, there were 50 cases left over from 2009, giving a total of 363 cases sub judice in 2010, and 317 of those cases were concluded. The intellectual property cases in 2010 had the following characteristics: the percentage of difficult cases that require clear and specific definition due to the fact that the legal provisions are more in the nature of a principle is increasing; cases in which the outcome of the trial has a material impact on the immediate interests of a concerned party are increasing, with cases involving market-seizing patents, technical secrets and trademarks being particularly prominent; cases in which the determination of facts relating to special technologies is difficult are increasing, with cases involving high and new technology sectors such as biology, chemicals and pharmaceuticals being particularly prominent; affiliated cases have increased noticeably, with parties exhausting the offensive and defensive means of various procedures, from jurisdiction to substance, from infringement to rights confirmation, from criminal prosecution to claims for civil compensation and from local people's courts to the Supreme People's Court, to protect their own rights and interests, reflecting the intensity of the competition among market entities, all of which has increased the difficulty in trying and coordinating intellectual property cases; the development of network technologies has facilitated the dissemination of intellectual property products, revolutionised business operation models and affected the manner in which the intrinsic benefits of relevant industries are distributed, resulting in a marked increase in new-type intellectual property disputes and unfair competition disputes arising as a result thereof; rules for adjudicating foreign-related cases have drawn ever greater attention from the international community, etc. On the basis of a summarisation of its experience in issuing annual reports on intellectual property cases in past years, the Supreme People's Court has, from among the cases on which a final and conclusive decision was reached in 2010, carefully selected 43 issues with broad guiding significance from 36 cases to prepare and issue this year's report. The cases selected for this year's report manifest the Supreme People's Court's understanding and exploration of the issues of law application and adjudication method in specific intellectual property cases, with the judgments having quite strong individual character, and application of the law itself being a process that changes with the times. Relevant judicial policies will also undergo appropriate revision in keeping with social, economic, scientific, technological and cultural development. In this regard, relevant parties should give full attention to the foregoing when referring to, and drawing on, the opinions on the application of the law contained in this annual report.