Equal protection offered to parties from home, abroad

The Beijing Intellectual Property Court is becoming one of the world's preferred destinations for IP-related lawsuits because it provides equal protection for litigants from home and abroad and makes high-quality rulings, a court official said.

Du Changhui, vice-president of the court, said that "foreign litigants coming to us to solve disputes is a recognition of our justice system and also means our judicial credibility is being improved worldwide".

Since the court was established in 2014, it has even handled several cases between foreign parties, including a dispute between two technology giants from the United States-Qualcomm and Apple-over an invention patent, and a lawsuit between Apple and Nagra, a manufacturer of audio-recording devices based in Switzerland, Du said.

"These foreign litigants chose to settle their IP disputes in our court because of the equal protection that we have always ensured in the process of our handing of cases," he said.

"In other words, our implementation of equal protection to litigants, no matter where they are from, and our previous rulings have made foreign entities believe they will see justice in China."

He said the Beijing court has paid a lot of attention to resolving such cases, regarding them as opportunities to form international rules in the IP field.

He added that the formation of such rules will help China's judicial voice get increasingly heard by the international community.

The court has also increased international exchanges in recent years, including participating in global IP-related seminars and organizing judges to conduct more research on foreign-related IP legal documents, he said.

"We'll further improve the quality and professionalism of our case hearings, as it's not only essential for the country to become more powerful in terms of IP protection and related industrial development, but also important for us to take part in global governance," Du added.