White Paper on the Trial of Intellectual Property Cases by Shanghai Courts in 2018
Shanghai High People’s Court
April 22, 2019
IV. Intellectual Property Trial System and Mechanism Continued to Improve Through Implementation of Judicial Reform
1. The internal institutional reform was steadily pushed forward. According to the unified arrangement of the Subcommittee for Political and Legislative Affairs of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, a reform plan of internal institutions of the intellectual property trial was drawn up. The intellectual property tribunals of Huangpu Court and Minhang Court were dismissed, and all judges and staff thereof were transferred to Xuhui Court and Yangpu Court. Great efforts were made to reconstruct the trial team and hear leftover cases brought about by the centralized jurisdiction of IP cases after the reform, and to minimize the impact of this reform on the IP trial work.
2. The “three-in-one” comprehensive trial mechanism was further improved. Shanghai High People’s Court further deepened the “three-in-one” integration of civil, administrative and criminal IP trials, defined the jurisdictions of the four grass-root courts–Pudong Court, Xuhui Court, Yangpu Court and Putuo Court after the internal institutional reform, and expanded the jurisdictions of grass-root courts on criminal and administrative IP cases. Shanghai High People’s Court also countersigned the Regulations on Adjusting Jurisdiction over Criminal IP Cases in Shanghai with Shanghai People’s Procuratorate and Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau to implement the designated jurisdiction system and define the scope of criminal IP cases. At the National Symposium on the Campaign against IPR Infringements and Counterfeits in early 2018, Pudong Court’s promotion of the “three-in-one” trial mechanism was fully affirmed by Wang Yang, member of Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and Head of the National Leading Group on the Campaign against IPR Infringements and Counterfeits, who stressed that the Supreme Court’s overall promotion of the “three-in-one” reform of intellectual property trials “is derived from the valuable experience of Pudong.”
3. Explorations were made on reforming trial methods of IP cases. Shanghai Intellectual Property Court formulated the Operating Rules for Remote Video Trial of Cases (Trial) to specify the scope of application and procedural norms for remote video trial. Pudong Court promoted the mode of “submitting written documents and exchanging evidences before trial,” greatly improving trial efficiency and shortening trial duration by an average of 2/3. Yangpu Court formulated the Detailed Rules for Implementing Summary Procedure Reform of Trials and Document Styles for IP Cases to detail the rules on summary procedure and studied the promotion of element-based trial to push forward trial reform pilot work vigorously and orderly.
4. The mechanism for ascertaining technical facts was improved. Efforts were made to integrate the IP technical expert database of Shanghai High People’s Court and the technical consulting expert database of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court. A sharing mechanism for ascertained technical facts of technical cases in the courts across the city was established to serve the trial of technical IP cases of all courts of the city. The People’s Daily of May 18, 2018 published a special report on the technical investigator of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court entitled The Court Has a Technical Investigator Now, which has achieved good social effects.
V. Influence of IP Trial Kept Increasing through Active International Exchanges and Judicial Publicity
1. A series of publicity activities were elaborately organized for the World Intellectual Property Day on April 26. Shanghai High People’s Court held a press conference and for the first time issued the White Paper on the Trial of Intellectual Property Cases by Shanghai Courts in 2017, White Paper on the Trail of Foreign-related Intellectual Property Case by Shanghai Courts during 2014-2017, and “Ten Major Cases on Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights by Shanghai Courts in 2017, all in bilingual version of Chinese and English. Officials of embassies and consulates in Shanghai, representatives of foreign non-enterprise economic organizations, and numerous domestic and international news media were invited to the press. Intellectual property tribunals of all courts in the city carried out a series of live trials and public sentencing activities. Shanghai Intellectual Property Court and Pudong Court respectively issued their white papers and typical cases on intellectual property trials. Yangpu Court, Xuhui Court and Putuo Court also held discussions and symposiums with relevant universities and enterprises.
2. A mechanism was established for regular exchange and cooperation with universities and colleges. In April 2018, Shanghai High People’s Court and Tongji University signed the Framework Cooperation Agreement on Strengthening Intellectual Property Law Education and Judicial Practice to strengthen theoretical research and support talent training. Over the past year, the two sides had in-depth cooperation in personnel exchange, talent training, research projects, case study, etc. Four platforms have been established for the two sides to enhance the judges’ comprehensive research ability, college students’ practical training, foreign exchange, and high-quality resource sharing.
3. Foreign exchange activities were actively organized. Shanghai High People’s Court held a symposium on legal protection of trade secrets in November 2018, at which Professor Martin Senftleben of VU University Amsterdam’s Law and Internet Center made a special speech on Current Situation and Development Trend of Legal Protection of Trade Secrets in EU. In 2018, Shanghai High People’s Court and Shanghai Intellectual Property Court received 16 groups of nearly 300 people, including judge of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, Consul of Consulate General of the United States in Shanghai, Chief Representative of US-China Business Council in Shanghai, Consul of the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea (ROK) in Shanghai, and participants of Japan-China Intellectual Property Exchange Meeting of the Association for the Promotion of International Trade, Japan.
VI. Strengthening Guidance on Research Contributed to Steady Improvement of IP Trial Level
(1) Guidance on research was strengthened. The Third Civil Tribunal of Shanghai High People’s Court established a communication and coordination mechanism. Regular meetings of presiding judges were held, and a liaison system of the three levels of courts was established to study new types of cases and complicated cases appearing in intellectual property trials, thus promoting the unified application of laws. The Answers to Several Questions on Determining Compensation Amount Based on Statutory Compensation Method was formulated to further increase the damages against intellectual property infringement. An empirical study was carried out on the general principles of measurement of penalty for intellectual property crimes and seven specific crimes, which led to the formulation of the Guidelines for Measurement of Penalty for Common Intellectual Property Crimes to regulate the application of probation, fines and injunction orders.
2. Research projects were promoted. Shanghai High People’s Court completed the Research on Judicial Protection of CIIE-related Intellectual Property Rights and, together with Patent Reexamination Board of CNIPA, the Research on Suspension of Patent Invalidation Examination Procedures. The research report on exposition-related IP cases compiled by the Second Tribunal of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court was listed in the Top Ten Research Reports in 2018 by People’s Court Daily while another research project of the same court was awarded Excellent Key Research Project of Shanghai Courts. Pudong Court and Putuo Court each had one research project that was appraised as Excellent Research Project for Approval of Shanghai Courts. The Opinions on Judicial Protection of FTZ-related Intellectual Property Rights compiled by Pudong Court as entrusted by the Supreme Court and under the guidance of Shanghai High People’s Court was affirmed by the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme Court.
photo from: Shanghai High People's Court
