Statistics from the Supreme People's Court on October 16 showed that during the five years from 2002 to 2006, local courts nationwide totally handled and concluded 54,321 and 52,437 civil cases of first instance respectively, up 145.92 percent and 141.99 percent compared with the previous five years from 1997 to 2001, with an annual growth of 17.06 percent and 19.29 percent.

The content of IP-related lawsuit trials keeps expanding, covering not only cases related to temporary restraining order, Internet article copyright, Internet domain name, confirmation of renowned brand and new plant varieties, but also disputes related to design of integrated circuit, folk literature and art, geographical indication, confirmation of non-infringing action, chartered operation contract and anti-monopolization. The rapid increase of IP-related cases and continuous expansion of the content of IP-related lawsuit trials not only indicate the rapid development of China's IPR protection undertaking, but also reflect the whole society's strong demands for and full confidence on judicial protection in IP area.

According to the new situation of IPR protection and the requirement of the development of IP-related lawsuit trials, courts of various levels timely expanded their judicial jurisdiction and improved their trial mechanism. By the end of July 2007, the numbers of intermediate courts with jurisdiction of trying lawsuits related to patent, new plant variety and design of integrated circuit increased to 67, 38 and 43 respectively. Meanwhile, a totally of 26 grass-roots courts are allowed to try some civil lawsuits related to intellectual property. The distribution is becoming reasonable and these courts' capacities are greatly improved.

Courts of various levels take active and prudent temporary measures according to the law to deter right infringements and ensure the realization of right holders' legal rights and interests. From 2002 to October 2006, China's courts totally handled 430 cases applying for temporary restraining order with 425 cases concluded. 92.67 percent of the applications were supported. A total of 218 cases applying for property preservation prior to lawsuit were handled with 208 cases concluded. 96.07 percent of the applications were supported. Most cases of temporary measures prior to lawsuit can be judged within 48 hours, which ensures the efficiency of these temporary measures.

The principle of IP infringement compensation is fully implemented in courts nationwide. With the strengthening of the courts' efforts in compensation judgments, the compensation amounts also keep increasing with the standard in some cases reaching the maximum according to the law. Civil punishments are imposed upon those who seriously violated intellectual property rights. By confirming renowned brands and famous commodities through judicial process, measures are taken to implement the promotion of renowned brand strategy. From 2002 to October 2006, local courts nationwide totally confirmed 187 renowned brands.

Through reasonably allocating judicial resources, people's courts continuously perfect their professional trial structure and strengthen their trial capacities. According to the preliminary statistics in early 2006, people's courts nationwide totally set up 172 separate IP division and 140 special IP collegiate benches with 1,667 judges specialized in IP judgment.