The reporter learned from the Nanjing Municipal Market Supervision Bureau that since the "Nanjing Municipal Intellectual Property Dispute Litigation and Matchmaking Management Measures" was promulgated in November 2020, the Nanjing Municipal People’s Mediation Committee for IP Disputes has accepted the entrust of the Municipal Intermediate People’s Court and has mediated 24 intellectual property rights cases. Among them, 16 were successfully mediated, with a success rate of nearly 70%.
According to the Intellectual Property Protection Center of China (Nanjing), the Mediation Commission, as a public welfare People’s Mediation Organization in the intellectual property industry, has hired a proficient legal person from administrative agencies, universities, scientific research institutes, enterprises and law firms as people’s mediators, to provide mediation of IP disputes of different types and fields. They helped the parties get out of the dilemma of difficult proof and high cost of rights protection, and broadened the ways to resolve IP disputes and optimized Nanjing intellectual property rights, and optimized the business environment.
Cheng Tangfa, a retired judge of the Intellectual Property Division of Nanjing Intermediate People's Court, was one of the mediators hired. He told reporters that many intellectual property disputes had to be filed before they could be resolved in the past, and the entire set of procedures took a long time. According to the parties wishes, a large number of disputes can be resolved before litigation, which is efficient and convenient. As hesaid, online picture infringement and large-market stock are two of the more common trademark and patent infringement cases. During the process of mediation, the mediator will also publicize laws and regulations and precautions to the parties. For example, when purchasing goods in a large market, they must ask the shipper whether intellectual property rights are involved. The purchase must have legal and formal procedures, and the goods must have a formal source, in order to help people avoid the risk of infringement and enhance the awareness of intellectual property protection.
Mediator Wang Wanglin was also a judge of the Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court before his retirement. He said that, on the one hand, the mediation could reduce the work pressure of the Court, the accumulation of cases, and improve the quality of case trials; on the other hand, within the reasonable and legal scope, it saves time, improves efficiency and saves part of litigation costs for parties who are willing to mediate. If the parties are not in Nanjing, mediation can also be conducted through phone contact, posting materials, etc. Without having to make a trip to Nanjing, the two parties can also resolve disputes and conflicts in different places.
