China building up its credibility in IP cases
July 17, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
“Chinese courts have been upholding equal protections while hearing foreign-related IP disputes no matter where litigants are from,” said Tao Kaiyuan, Vice President of the Supreme People’s Court. Foreign IP cases involving litigants from the United States made up one-third of the total, and they were mainly heard by courts in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang, according to Tao. Most of the plaintiffs in the disputes are from the U.S., and the money involved in many of the cases was more than CNY100 million, she added.
IP cases involving foreign individuals and companies represent 20% of the total, according to the Supreme People’s Court in an April disclosure. “We fully respect foreign litigants’ rights and strictly abide by international IP rules when handling such cases,” Tao said. A high-profile lawsuit involved U.S. basketball player Michael Jordan. In December 2016, the top court ended the four-year-long trademark dispute by issuing a verdict, in which it ruled the registered trademark of Chinese company Qiaodan Sports infringed on Jordan’s right to his name and violated provisions of the Trademark Law. “Qiaodan”, which is a transliteration of “Jordan” in Chinese characters, has a strong connection to the basketball player, and most Chinese would consider it as Jordan when they see Qiaodan written in Chinese, the ruling said. Tao, as the case’s Chief Judge, ordered the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) to revoke the trademark.
Another case involved French fashion house Christian Dior. On April 26, the top court reheard a lawsuit over the water droplet-shaped bottle of J’adore between Christian Dior and the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the SAIC. The Supreme People’s Court revoked the previous ruling made by a local court in Beijing, which rejected the company’s application to register the bottle design as a trademark, ordering the Administration to make another review of the company’s IP application. This means the IP protection of the bottle design will be upheld in China.
Cui Guobin, Associate Professor at Tsinghua University specializing in IP, said equally protecting IP rights is a key for China to improve its judicial credibility. China has more than 300 IP tribunals across the country with about 3,000 judges specializing in hearing IP lawsuits, the China Daily reports.
By the end of June, China has had 1.475 million invention patents, which means that for every 10,000 people in China, there are 10.6 invention patents on average. China is also making greater effort to protect intellectual property rights. In the first half of 2018, the number of cases related to invention patents has increased by 29.5% compared to the same period last year. By the end of June, 13,600 cases about trademark violations have been handled, and the total value involved in these cases reached CNY210 million, according to SIPO.
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