Beijing IP Court receives top marks in first year

With the adoption of the decision by the Standing Committee of the 12th National People’s Congress to establish intellectual property courts, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court was established in November 2014 and has now been operating for a little over a year. During this period, the court has put forth a number of measures in the intellectual property (IP) trial field addressing issues such as administrative interference in judicial procedures and “varying judgments in similar cases”.

It has made solid contributions to the professionalization of adjudication and judicial transparency. Being the region with the greatest number of IP cases in the country, it goes without saying that the various exploratory efforts of Beijing’s IP court have an impact on, and set an example for, IP adjudication nationwide as well as reform of the entire adjudication system.

Professional talent ensures professionalized adjudication. In ordinary courts, judges will often move between divisions due to promotions or court management needs, giving them little incentive to intensively study specialized IP knowledge. In contrast, the cases of IP courts relate only to IP such that recruitments are all conditioned on satisfying the actual requirements of IP adjudication.