In 2016, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court accepted 10,638 cases, up 15.74% from 9,191 in 2015. These comprised 8,305 first-instance cases, 2,330 second-instance cases and three review cases.

Among the cases of first instance, there were 1,754 patent disputes (including 1,104 administrative patent disputes), 5,969 trademark disputes (including 5,936 administrative trademark disputes), and 420 copyright disputes (including 417 computer software copyright disputes).

Among the cases of second instance, there were 7 patent disputes, 156 trademark disputes (including 1 administrative trademark dispute), and 1,895 copyright disputes, 43 technical contract disputes, 78 unfair competition disputes, and 151 other disputes.

The court’s caseload was characterized by a high proportion of first-instance, administrative, technical and foreign-related cases. Five new trends emerged in 2016:

1) More cases involved strategically important high-tech industries and core technologies.

2) More cases involved foreign parties on both sides.

3) More cases involved Chinese patentees suing foreign parties.

4) More new types of disputes arose. 5) More cases involved large amounts in dispute.

In 2016, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court substantially increased damages awards for intellectual property infringement. In 2015, the court’s average award was RMB 450,000 (approximately USD 65,000). According to incomplete statistics for 2016, average awards in patent, trademark and copyright infringement cases were RMB 1,410,000 (approximately USD 205,000), RMB 1,650,000 (approximately USD 240,000) and RMB 458,000 (approximately USD 67,000), respectively.

Representative cases included the following:

In the Mobil trademark infringement case, the court upheld the full damages claim of RMB 4,500,000 (approximately USD 650,000).

In the “墙锢” trademark infringement case, the court upheld the full damages claim of RMB 10,000,000 (approximately USD 1,460,000).

In the U-SHIELD patent infringement case, the court upheld the full damages claim of RMB 49,000,000 (approximately USD 7,140,000). For the first time, it also awarded hourly billed legal fees of RMB 1,000,000 (approximately USD 146,000).

In the “紫玉” trademark infringement case, the first-instance award of RMB 1,000,000 (approximately USD 146,000) was increased to the statutory maximum of RMB 3,000,000 (approximately USD 437,000).

In the Sursen copyright infringement case, damages were calculated using the maximum remuneration rate of RMB 300 per 1,000 words, substantially increasing the first-instance award.

Source: http://www.chinaiprlaw.cn/index.php?id=4592