Setting up of high court for IPR disputes considered
March 20, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) is considering setting up a high court specializing in handling intellectual property (IPR) disputes as the country takes bigger steps to protect IP rights. The Supreme People’s Court is also studying how to hear IP lawsuits more efficiently and will make public detailed procedures soon, Song Xiaoming, Chief Judge of the SPC’s IP Tribunal told China Daily. China currently has three IP courts, all at intermediate level, in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.
While delivering a work report to the National People’s Congress (NPC) SPC President Zhou Qiang said a plan to improve procedures on handling IP lawsuits is in the pipeline and addresses the public’s biggest complaint – the low cost of IP infringement and the high cost of tackling it. From 2013 to 2017, courts across the country concluded 683,000 IP disputes, 405,000 more than the previous five years. More than 120,000 people were charged with IP infringement between 2013 and 2017, 2.1 times as many as from 2008 to 2012, according to a report by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Lawmakers and political advisers welcomed the judiciary’s determination to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights, and called for even stronger penalties.
In addition, more attention should be paid to resolving IP disputes for companies doing business overseas, said Huang Jianping, an NPC Deputy and a businessman from Guangdong province. “It’s urgent to accelerate domestic enterprises’ IP registration and approval overseas by making bilateral or multilateral IP cooperation with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative,” he said.
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