China News Service, Beijing, February 23 (Reporter Zhang Su) A report released on the 23rd stated that in a new civil second-instance substantive case accepted by the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Court"), new plant variety rights were infringed. The average annual increase in cases is the largest, with a year-on-year increase of 20% in 2023 and a five-year average annual increase of 87.9%.
The court was established on January 1, 2019, and uniformly exercises the appeal hearing function for patent and other technical intellectual property cases and monopoly cases.
As of the end of 2023, 18,924 technology intellectual property and monopoly cases had been accepted in the past five years, and 15,710 cases had been concluded.
The annual court report released this time shows that the number of cases accepted in 2023 increased by 25.8% year-on-year, of which the number of new cases increased by 14.9%.
The report analyzed the characteristics of the cases and said that infringement cases continued to grow. In 2023, 3,222 new civil second-instance substantive cases were accepted, with an average annual growth of 35.3% in the five years.
Infringement disputes involving invention patents, utility model patents, new plant varieties, technical secrets, and computer software are increasing year by year.
"my country has become the country that hears the most patent and new plant variety cases," Wang Shumei, deputy ministerial-level member of the Judgmental Committee of the Supreme People's Court, said at a symposium on the 23rd. The court has formed a number of benchmark judgments and produced important results at home and abroad. Influence.
On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the court, the ten most influential cases were released, including the "Jinjing 818" new rice plant variety infringement case.
The infringers used Internet information platforms to organize the sales of "white bags" of seeds, and disguised the infringement in the names of business entities such as "farmers" and "large grain growers".
The Supreme Court accurately identified the infringement and profits from infringement, and applied punitive damages in accordance with the law to determine the amount of compensation at a high level.
He Zhonglin, deputy director of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court, said that in the past five years, the court has accepted 481 cases involving disputes over new plant varieties, and concluded 364 cases. In more than 80% of the cases, the variety rights holders won, and the amount of compensation awarded was getting higher and higher. .
The Supreme People's Court also issued judicial interpretations related to new plant varieties to expand the scope of protection and reduce the difficulty of rights protection.
He Zhonglin said that the court will continue to increase the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry, further implement strict protection, and increase compensation.
In addition, the newly revised Seed Law adds systems such as substantively derived varieties and extended protection of harvested materials, and the court will promote the implementation of the system.
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