China sees increaseing IPR cases in first ten months

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-28 22:41

CHONGQING - China's courts had handled more than 20,000 cases related to intellectual property rights (IPR) in the first ten months of 2008, a year-on-year rise of nearly 40 percent.

It was revealed by a senior court official on Friday at a national seminar on IPR trials held in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.

From January to October, local courts around China heard 20,806 IPR cases at first instance trials, up 36.9 percent; 3,251 cases at second instance trials, up about 50 percent, said Xi Xiaoming, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, at the seminar.

The number of IPR cases asked for retrials after the second verdict had amounted to 92, more than a year-on-year growth of 162 percent, the official said.

"The massive growth in the number of IPR cases proves that verdicts in these kind of cases draw wide attention from society," Xi said.

The range expansion of IPR cases also contributed to the sharp increase, Xi added, saying that IPR violations which the courts received vary from franchising, domain names, logos to IPR agents.

In order to improve the trial ability over these cases, the Supreme Court designated dozens of courts to handle specific IPR cases, including 71 courts on patent violation, 38 on new plant varieties and 43 on layout-design of integrated circuits.

The meeting, one of the activities to mark this month's campaign in raising public awareness of IPR protection and sparking enthusiasm for innovation, also granted honors to 50 individuals and 40 units in the field.

China's State Council introduced an outline of the IPR strategy earlier this June. The key points of the strategy include the perfection of the IPR system, the promotion of IPR creation and use, strengthening protection, avoidance of abuse and nurturing respect for IPR.

It said that China would have a fairly high level of IPR creation, use, protection and management by 2020.