Moves to set up intellectual property courts come at just the right time

The proposal made at the Third Plenum that the “establishment of intellectual property courts be explored” has become a new direction in China’s intellectual property judicial sector. At present Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have applied to the Supreme People’s Court to establish intellectual property courts. The lead author is of the opinion that, in contrast to other legal fields, the legislative and judicial standards in China’s intellectual property sector, as well as the quality of the professionals in the field, have achieved relatively stronger development. Against such a background, the establishment of dedicated intellectual property courts will have a profound and positive effect on the protection of intellectual property in China.

Adjudication model

The professionalised judicial trial model for intellectual property took shape in China in the 1990s. In 1993, the Beijing Municipal Intermediate and Higher People’s Courts were the first to establish intellectual property divisions, followed by the Supreme People’s Court in 1996. Since then, while the Supreme People’s Court was gradually clarifying the issue of jurisdiction in intellectual property cases, dedicated intellectual property divisions were being established in those courts with case jurisdiction, in the process becoming one of the major reforms in China’s judicial field and effectively enhancing the level of protection accorded intellectual property rights in China.

However, in addition to civil cases, intellectual property cases regularly involve administrative and criminal cases. Before 1995, Chinese courts implemented, in respect of intellectual property cases, an adjudication model in which civil, administrative and criminal cases were tried by three separate divisions – a model that can readily result in divergent findings, or even contradictory findings, over the same facts.

Wang Yadong is the executive partner and Lu Lei is a partner at Run Ming Law Office