Beijing IP Court Issues White Paper Providing Stats for its Decisions of the Last Decade
Published 11 November 2024
Fei Dang
On November 6, 2024, Beijing IP Court held a media conference and issued a bilingual White Paper on the Judicial Work of Beijing Intellectual Property Court in the Past Ten Years (2014-2024, “White Paper”).
The White Paper contains six parts as its main content, which are “Overview of the Court and Its Trial Data”, “Typical Cases and Adjudication Rules”, “Protection Effectiveness and Achievement”, “Judicial Reform and Mechanism Innovation”, “Talent Cultivation and Team-building”, and “Foreign-related Cases and International Exchange”.
The White Paper states that the Beijing IP Court (the Court) is in charge of civil and administrative cases involving intellectual property rights in Beijing, as well as the “exclusive jurisdiction over administrative cases of intellectual property rights authorization and confirmation such as patents, trademarks, new plant varieties, and integrated circuit layout designs throughout China; and has centralized jurisdiction over anti-monopoly administrative cases initiated by the anti-monopoly law enforcement authority of the State Council and civil and administrative cases involving drug patent linkage throughout China.”
According to its trial data, the Court has accepted 201,984 cases and concluded 195,506 of them during the period from November 2014 to October 2024. Among them, 74.01% (149,486) of the accepted cases were administrative review cases which is an annual increase rate of 14.85%, whereas 25.99% (52,498) thereof are civil cases with an annual increase rate of 20.36%. Also, 81.63% (164,871) of the total accepted cases are the first instance cases whereas 18.16% (36,084) thereof are the second instance cases (including jurisdiction related cases).
In terms of the types of IP rights, the numbers of the accepted cases from highest to lowest are trademark (137,435, 68.04%), copyright (37,139, 18.39%), patent (21,976, 10.88%), and competition cases, which include anti-unfair competition, anti-trust, franchise contracts, and domain name (3,767, 1.86%). The annual increase rates of the said IP rights are respectively 16.27% for trademark, 13.2% for copyright, 5.24% for patent, and 10.48% for competition cases. Due to the full coverage of the IP right fields, the Court has contributed numerous judicial cases, including but not limited to 75 typical IP right protection cases selected by the Supreme People’s Court.
It is also worth noting that the White Paper introduces that during the past ten years, the Court has tried 36,201 foreign-related IP cases which accounts for 17.92% of the total cases, and the relevant parties are from more than 100 countries and regions across five continents. Further, as an effort to provide practical guides for foreign parties to participate in the litigations in the Court, it issues a bilingual “Reference for Notarization and Legalisation of Subject Qualification Certificates in Foreign-related Cases” regarding the subject qualification review in foreign-related cases, which covers 18 major countries - see the PDF file at https://www.ciplawyer.cn/images/www/202410/21100557wdng.pdf - It is said that the cost of submitting the litigation documents for foreign parties since the release of the said has reduced 40%, and preparation time thereof is shortened to two weeks from three months.
[Comment]
The issuance of the White Paper is not only a good summary that shows how much effort the Beijing IP Court has made since its establishment ten years ago, but also provides a good opportunity for us to see the overall development in the IP rights fields in China. For instance, the increasing numbers of the accepted various IP cases show that the whole society sees the importance of the IP rights more and more, and the IP right owners, as well as the concerned parties have learnt to adopt legal means to protect their rights and interests, which is a sign of progress. In addition, the more IP related judgments concluded by the Court, the more predictable the applications of IP laws and regulations have become for the right owners, as those prior judgments provide important reference on how to protect their rights and interests. Thus, it is very meaningful for the Beijing IP Court to issue such a White Paper to highlight the achievements in the past decade.
The White Paper contains six parts as its main content, which are “Overview of the Court and Its Trial Data”, “Typical Cases and Adjudication Rules”, “Protection Effectiveness and Achievement”, “Judicial Reform and Mechanism Innovation”, “Talent Cultivation and Team-building”, and “Foreign-related Cases and International Exchange”.
The White Paper states that the Beijing IP Court (the Court) is in charge of civil and administrative cases involving intellectual property rights in Beijing, as well as the “exclusive jurisdiction over administrative cases of intellectual property rights authorization and confirmation such as patents, trademarks, new plant varieties, and integrated circuit layout designs throughout China; and has centralized jurisdiction over anti-monopoly administrative cases initiated by the anti-monopoly law enforcement authority of the State Council and civil and administrative cases involving drug patent linkage throughout China.”
According to its trial data, the Court has accepted 201,984 cases and concluded 195,506 of them during the period from November 2014 to October 2024. Among them, 74.01% (149,486) of the accepted cases were administrative review cases which is an annual increase rate of 14.85%, whereas 25.99% (52,498) thereof are civil cases with an annual increase rate of 20.36%. Also, 81.63% (164,871) of the total accepted cases are the first instance cases whereas 18.16% (36,084) thereof are the second instance cases (including jurisdiction related cases).
In terms of the types of IP rights, the numbers of the accepted cases from highest to lowest are trademark (137,435, 68.04%), copyright (37,139, 18.39%), patent (21,976, 10.88%), and competition cases, which include anti-unfair competition, anti-trust, franchise contracts, and domain name (3,767, 1.86%). The annual increase rates of the said IP rights are respectively 16.27% for trademark, 13.2% for copyright, 5.24% for patent, and 10.48% for competition cases. Due to the full coverage of the IP right fields, the Court has contributed numerous judicial cases, including but not limited to 75 typical IP right protection cases selected by the Supreme People’s Court.
It is also worth noting that the White Paper introduces that during the past ten years, the Court has tried 36,201 foreign-related IP cases which accounts for 17.92% of the total cases, and the relevant parties are from more than 100 countries and regions across five continents. Further, as an effort to provide practical guides for foreign parties to participate in the litigations in the Court, it issues a bilingual “Reference for Notarization and Legalisation of Subject Qualification Certificates in Foreign-related Cases” regarding the subject qualification review in foreign-related cases, which covers 18 major countries - see the PDF file at https://www.ciplawyer.cn/images/www/202410/21100557wdng.pdf - It is said that the cost of submitting the litigation documents for foreign parties since the release of the said has reduced 40%, and preparation time thereof is shortened to two weeks from three months.
[Comment]
The issuance of the White Paper is not only a good summary that shows how much effort the Beijing IP Court has made since its establishment ten years ago, but also provides a good opportunity for us to see the overall development in the IP rights fields in China. For instance, the increasing numbers of the accepted various IP cases show that the whole society sees the importance of the IP rights more and more, and the IP right owners, as well as the concerned parties have learnt to adopt legal means to protect their rights and interests, which is a sign of progress. In addition, the more IP related judgments concluded by the Court, the more predictable the applications of IP laws and regulations have become for the right owners, as those prior judgments provide important reference on how to protect their rights and interests. Thus, it is very meaningful for the Beijing IP Court to issue such a White Paper to highlight the achievements in the past decade.