Supreme People’s Court recently issues a circular on learning and implementing the Compendium of China National IP Strategy (hereafter referred to as the Compendium) promulgated by the State Council, requiring people’s courts of various levels to fully recognize the important significance of implementing the national IP strategy, actively improve judicial system and working mechanisms, bring the leading roles of IPR judicial protection into full play and energetically strengthen trials of IPR-related cases.

The circular stresses that the Compendium regards perfecting IP law-enforcement system as one of the key points of the national IP strategy, and clearly requires “strengthening the construction of judicial protection system, giving full play to the leading roles of IPR judicial protection and improving law-enforcement efficiency and level.” Giving fully play to the leading roles of judicial protection of IPRs is the new positioning of IPR judicial protection given by the Compendium from the overall and strategic height according to the demand of the new situations and tasks and the reality of IPR protection. People’s courts have special functions, occupy important positions and bear great responsibilities in the process of implementing the national IP strategy.

The circular requires people’s courts of various levels to pay attention to the following three aspects: First, actively supporting related departments in IP law modification works such as the Patent Law and Trademark Law; second, actively supporting Supreme People’s Court in further strengthening the work of IP-related judicial interpretation and establishing and perfecting related working mechanisms; third, further deepening researches of various measures put forward by the Compendium. Supreme People’s Court has decided to conduct special surveys and researches recently and put forward the concrete working measures and implementation opinions for people’s courts to fully implement the Compendium.

The circular says that people’s courts of various levels should focus on case trying according to law, stress on proper utilization of legal liability and prudent adoption of provisional measures, increase protection of IPRs according to law and intensify IP-related judicial remedies. Measure should be taken to fully strengthen trials of IP-related cases so as to give full play to the overall roles of IPR judicial protection, use various criminal punishment methods according to law to severely punish those criminals who infringes IPRs so as to energetically perform the functions of criminal punishment and IP criminal prevention, define civil liability according to law so as to actively adopt remedy measures and properly handle IP civil disputes and to bring the leading roles of civil case trials in protecting IPRs and stimulating independent innovation into full play, and protect the legal rights and interests of private parties in administration according to law, supervise and support governance according to law and safeguard competent administrative departments’ functions of implementing IP law enforcement and administration according to law. (Xinhua News Agency)