Courts at all levels solve the problem of rights protection and improve the quality of handling intellectual property cases
Specialized trial full chain protection (rule of law focus, intellectual property protection)
Core reading
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Outline for Building a Powerful Country with Intellectual Property Rights (2021-2035)". The "Outline" requires that the basic strategy of comprehensively governing the country according to law be implemented, intellectual property rights are strictly protected in accordance with the law, and social fairness and justice and the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders are effectively safeguarded.
In recent years, the people's courts have actively promoted specialized trials of intellectual property rights, solved problems in rights protection, and further strengthened the protection of the entire chain of intellectual property rights.
Piracy, plagiarism, malicious squatting, and famous brands... For some time, infringements of copyright and trademark rights have brought challenges to the protection of intellectual property rights.
In addition, the protection of intangible cultural heritage, Chinese time-honored brands, and intellectual property rights in the cultural and creative industries is related to the inheritance of Chinese excellent traditional culture and the prosperity and development of the cultural industry.
In recent years, the people's courts have persisted in serving the overall situation, serving the people, and impartial justice, actively playing the role of judicial protection of intellectual property rights, and promoting the formation of a judicial protection system that is fair and efficient, has scientific jurisdiction, clear boundaries of power, and a complete system.
The Supreme People’s Court recently issued the “Opinions on Strengthening Intellectual Property Judicial Work in the New Era to Provide Effective Judicial Services and Guarantees for the Building of a Powerful Intellectual Property Country” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”). In terms of comprehensively strengthening the trial of intellectual property rights in the new era, 20 policies and measures have been proposed.
New changes
The number of cases involving core technologies and key areas has increased, the amount of litigation objects has increased significantly, and the protection of emerging industries has been strengthened.
In the highly-regarded case of Red Bull and TENCEL’s trademark ownership of "Red Bull", the Supreme Law made a final judgment, dismissing Red Bull’s “revocation of the first-instance judgment and reconfirming Red Bull’s legal rights to the Red Bull series of trademarks” Request to clarify that TENCEL Thailand is the owner of the Red Bull series of trademarks.
According to the judge handling the case, the judgment in this case clarified the legal boundaries between trademark transfer and trademark licensing, equally protected the legitimate interests of Chinese and foreign trademark owners, and clearly conveyed a signal to increase judicial protection of intellectual property rights.
"Xiaoi Robot" invention patent invalidation request administrative dispute case, "lithium battery protection chip" integrated circuit layout design infringement case, employee violation of confidentiality duty criminal and civil cross case, "Lego" copyright infringement case... these social concerns The case was selected as the "Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases in Chinese Courts in 2020" and "50 Typical Intellectual Property Cases" issued by the Supreme Law.
According to Lin Guanghai, President of the Third Civil Division of the Supreme Court, in 2020, courts across the country received a total of 525,618 IP cases of first instance, second instance, and application for retrial, and concluded 524,387 cases, an increase of 9.1% and 10.2% respectively over 2019. Including a number of major cases for the development of high-quality services.
The first batch of typical cases of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry issued by the Supreme Law shows that the people’s courts have effectively increased compensation for infringement of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, and protected seed industry innovators in accordance with the law to obtain economic benefits; intensified criminal sanctions and severe penalties in accordance with the law. Seed-related crimes; uphold the judicial concept that is conducive to the protection of rights, and solve the difficult problem of identifying infringement of variety rights; standardize the application of new plant varieties, and promote the improvement of the quality of variety authorization.
From 2016 to 2020, courts at all levels across the country concluded a total of 781 civil cases involving disputes over new plant varieties, and the number of closed cases rose from 66 in 2016 to 252 in 2020.
"In recent years, intellectual property cases have shown three new changes and new characteristics. One is the increasing number of cases involving core technologies and key areas; the second is the substantial increase in the market value of the intellectual property rights involved in the cases and the amount of corresponding litigation objects; the third is the domestic Intertwining with foreign litigation is getting closer and closer.” The relevant person in charge of the Supreme Law said that it is necessary to deeply understand that strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights is an important part of improving the property rights protection system, and effectively strengthen the judicial protection of intellectual property rights in emerging industries, key fields, provenance and seed industries. Protection, service, high-level technology, self-reliance and self-reliance.
In the face of new fields, new hotspots, and new issues, the "Opinions" require strengthening the judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the Internet field and new fields and new formats such as big data, artificial intelligence, genetic technology, and improving algorithms, business methods and intellectual property rights of artificial intelligence products. Judicial protection rules reasonably determine the legal responsibilities of the subjects of the new economy and new business forms, and actively respond to the judicial needs of new technologies, new industries, new business forms, and new models of intellectual property protection.
New mechanism
Explore the path to specialized trials of intellectual property rights, improve trial quality and efficiency, unify judgment standards, and promote judicial reform
Entering the Supreme Court of Intellectual Property in Fengtai District, Beijing, the science and technology court that integrates information technology terminal application, synchronous circle drawing technology, AR technology and other technologies is eye-catching.
Since its official inauguration on January 1, 2019, the Supreme Intellectual Property Court has actively explored the construction of a model of a smart court.
Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the court has conducted more than 2,000 online court trials, relying on the "People's Court Service Platform" to test the intensive service mode, and initiated more than 17,000 electronic services, with a total delivery power of 96.1% and an average cycle time. 0.36 days, effectively saving judicial costs.
"In 2020, the average trial period of second instance entity cases is 123 days. Among them, the average trial period of civil cases is 121.5 days, and the average trial period of administrative cases is 130.7 days. Before the establishment of the court, the average trial period of similar cases in the district high court was about 1 year. , Specialized trials have shortened the trial cycle.” said Zhonglin Yin, deputy chief of the Supreme Court’s Intellectual Property Court.
In addition to the establishment of intellectual property courts by the Supreme Law, intellectual property courts in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Hainan Free Trade Port have also been established.
"Since the establishment of the local intellectual property courts, they have persisted in reforms and innovations, and gradually explored ways to specialize intellectual property trials with Chinese characteristics. They have won positive comments from the people and the international community, and have played a role in improving trial quality and effectiveness, unifying judgment standards, and promoting judicial reforms. The relevant person in charge of the Supreme Law said, “The establishment of an intellectual property court has enhanced the influence of my country’s intellectual property judicial system and created a new situation in my country’s intellectual property judicial protection."
The "Outline for Building a Powerful Intellectual Property Country (2021-2035)" proposes to implement a high-level intellectual property trial organization construction project, and strengthen the trial foundation, institutional mechanisms and smart courts.
"It is necessary to further promote the'three-in-one' reform of civil, criminal and administrative cases of intellectual property rights, improve the intellectual property litigation system, improve the mechanism of diversified technical fact finding, deepen the reform of complicated cases, improve trial quality, efficiency and judicial credibility. "The relevant person in charge of the Supreme Court said.
New exploration
Solve the problems of "difficult proof, long cycle, high cost, and low compensation", and strengthen the protection of the entire chain of intellectual property rights
In response to the high cost of rights protection and low compensation in intellectual property cases, the people's courts implemented a punitive compensation system. Last year, the amount of compensation awarded in intellectual property cases increased by 79.3% year-on-year.
The "Opinions" clearly stated that punitive damages should be applied in accordance with the law, the intensity of compensation for intellectual property infringement damages and punishment of infringements should be increased, and the regulation of false intellectual property lawsuits and malicious lawsuits should be strengthened to prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights and promote Construction of the integrity system for intellectual property litigation.
In recent years, in order to effectively curb intellectual property rights infringement, the Supreme Law has promulgated judicial policies such as the "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening the Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights" to strengthen the protection of the entire chain of intellectual property rights.
In order to solve problems such as difficulty in providing evidence for rights holders and a long period, the Supreme Law formulated judicial interpretations of evidence in civil litigation of intellectual property rights, improved the systems of evidence submission, evidence preservation, and judicial appraisal, and improved evidence rules that conform to the characteristics of intellectual property cases.
Clarify the burden of proof for the party who has the evidence, clearly prove the legal consequences of obstructing and obstructing the preservation of evidence, appropriately reduce the burden of proof by the right holder in accordance with the law, and guide the parties to actively, actively, comprehensively and honestly provide evidence.
At present, there are still some problems and difficulties in the judicial work of intellectual property rights. There is still a gap between the judicial concept of intellectual property and the requirements of the new era and the new stage. The judicial reform in the field of intellectual property trials needs to be further deepened. The new situation and new issues of intellectual property judicial protection need to be studied in depth.
In order to make up for these shortcomings, the "Opinions" require the promotion and improvement of the national-level intellectual property case appeal hearing mechanism, strengthening the construction of intellectual property courts and intellectual property courts, deepening the comprehensive supporting reform of the judicial accountability system, and promoting the optimization of the layout of intellectual property jurisdiction.
In addition, the Supreme Law will also study and formulate litigation regulations that conform to the rules of intellectual property trials, and improve litigation evidence systems that conform to the characteristics of intellectual property cases.
"The people's courts will comprehensively strengthen judicial protection of intellectual property rights, and provide a solid legal guarantee for the realization of scientific and technological self-reliance; strengthen the protection of copyright and neighboring rights, and prosper the socialist culture with Chinese characteristics; strengthen the protection of trademark rights and promote the building of a brand power; strengthen anti-monopoly and anti- Unfair competition justice, to maintain a fair and competitive market environment conducive to innovation and development." The relevant person in charge of the Supreme Court said.
Our reporter Xu Jun
Coordinator for this issue: Ji Jianming
Layout design: Zhang Fangman