Beijing's courts at various levels have accepted an increasing number of lawsuits relating to intellectual property rights (IPR) in the first half of this year.

Local courts in the capital accepted 428 such cases between January and June, an increase of 29.3 per cent over the same period last year, said Wang Zhenqing, vice-president of the Beijing High People's Court.

"Local courts have accepted a rising amount of foreign-related IPR lawsuits in the past few years," Wang said.

The IPR division of the Beijing High People's Court accepted 23 foreign-related IPR cases last year, 53 per cent more than in 2001.

Cheng Yongshun, deputy chief judge from the IPR division of the Beijing High People's Court, noted that, although most of the cases dealt with by the division still involve foreign companies suing their Chinese counterparts for infringement of intellectual property rights, more and more Chinese enterprises have begun to initiate lawsuits to safeguard their legal rights.

For example, the Xuzhou Handu Industrial Development Corp sued the Japanese company Olympus, saying that Olympus used Xuzhou's Qianxilong (millennium dragon) trademark on Olympus cameras.

The Beijing High People's Court issued a final ruling in 2001, ordering Olympus to publicly apologize to the Chinese corporation and to pay compensation of 250,000 yuan (US$30,200).

At an expert forum on IPR protection held by the court last week, some experts suggested that an IPR court be set up under the Supreme People's Court.

But Fei Zongyi, an adviser to the Supreme People's Court, said it may be a little difficult to convince the National People's Congress - China's top legislature - of the need for such a court.

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