Judicial protection expanded
Courts across China have authoritatively implemented judicial reviews over cases related to the authorization of patents and trademarks, as well as IP administrative enforcement.
In 2005, courts across the country accepted 575 IP administrative cases, a 9.32 per cent increase over the year before; 576 cases were concluded over this same period, an increase of 4.92 per cent from 2004.
Of these cases, 209 were trademark cases and 31 were copyright disputes representing respective increases of 48.23 per cent and 287.5 per cent from 2004.
In the realm of IP criminal judicial protection, courts accepted 3,567 cases throughout the country in 2005, marking an increase of 28.36 per cent from the year before. Of these, 524 were IP infringement cases, with an increase of 35.4 per cent; 1,117 were related to manufacturing or sales of fake and inferior commodities, which increased by 16.48 per cent; and 1,926 were illegal business cases, rising 34.40 per cent. Of these IP criminal cases, 3,529 were concluded, for an increase of 28.28 per cent from the previous year. Among the disputes that were concluded, 505 were cases of IP infringement crime, 1,121 were related to manufacturing or sales of fake and inferior commodities, and 1,903 were cases of illegal business crimes. These cases resulted in the sentencing of 741, 1,942 and 2,653 suspects, respectively.
To reasonably deploy IP judicial resources, the Supreme People's Court appointed three Intermediate People's Courts throughout East China in 2005: in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, and in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. These courts tried patent-related cases, and three Intermediate People's Courts in Jiuquan, Wuwei and Zhangye all in Northwest China's Gansu Province dealt with cases related to new varieties of plants.
By the end of 2005, the number of the Intermediate People's courts with appropriate jurisdictions over patents, new varieties of plants and layout designs of integrated circuits, had reached 51, 37 and 43 throughout the country, respectively.
The Supreme People's Court authorized certain Primary People's courts in some large cities to accept and hear cases other than the three aforementioned three types. Until the end of 2005, a total of 15 Primary People's Courts had been granted jurisdiction over IP cases throughout the country.
To demonstrate the determination to continuously improve China's IP judicial protection standards, the Supreme People's Court decided in 2005 that the trial division of people's courts at every level throughout the country engaged in IP cases were entitled to another appellation the "Intellectual Property Trial Division" instead of "Third Civil Trial Division".
Expanded exchanges
In 2005, China strengthened exchanges and co-operation in the IP field through IP co-operation agreements with Peru and Mongolia.
On June 2, former SIPO Commissioner Wang Jingchuan and Peruvian Vice-Foreign Minister Armando Lecaros de Cossio signed the Agreement of Co-operation on Intellectual Property between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Peru.
On November 28, SIPO Commissioner Tian Lipu and Chinbat Namjil, Director General of the Intellectual Property Office of Mongolia, signed the Intellectual Property Co-operation Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Mongolia in Beijing.
Between September 24 and October 3, 2005, SIPO Deputy Commissioner Li Yuguang led a Chinese delegation made up of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, the National Copyright Administration, SIPO, China's Permanent Mission in Geneva and the Intellectual Property Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to the 41st Series of Meetings of the Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The delegation actively participated in discussions on a range of important issues, including the development agenda, the future work of the Standing Committee of Patents, the Standing Committee of Copyrights, the Diplomatic Conference of the Trademark Law Treaty, as well as issues related to the International Patent Classification (IPC) Union and Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) Union.
From September 5 to 9, the China-ASEAN Intellectual Property Seminar, organized by SIPO, was held in Beijing. More than 80 participants from 10 ASEAN member states and the Chinese IP community discussed topics of common interest.
From December 4 to 8, SIPO and the European Patent Office celebrated 20 years of co-operation at the People's Great Hall in Beijing. The two offices also held the 16th joint committee meeting and signed a bilateral technical co-operation memo for 2006. Agreements were reached on strengthening co-operation in staff training, automation construction, the exchange of patent documents, and international training.
(China Daily 07/10/2006 page9)
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