The Supreme People's Court (SPC) released its 2009 Annual Work Report on July 13. The report says that judicial protection of IPR is of great significance to encourage innovation, technical breakthrough, build a well-known brand, have proprietary IPR, and also be beneficial to easing negative impact on Chinese enterprises by global financial crisis.

According to the report, 36,140 IPR civil, criminal and administrative cases were concluded in 2009, up 29.65%. Among which, 30,509 are IPR civil cases, up 29.73%. Of all the IPR civil cases concluded, 15,180 are copyrights, 4,524 are patent infringement, 6,975 are trademark disputes and 1,287 unfair competition cases with false advertisements included.

(China IP News)