On January 1st, 2019, the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court (hereinafter referred to as the "IP Court") was officially unveiled and became the first specialized IP court at the highest court level worldwide. The IP Court exercises the final instance judicial function by hearing appeals on patents, monopoly and other technology-related IP cases from across China. It also undertakes the responsibilities and mission to further unify judicial standards for technology-related IP cases, and improve the quality and efficiency of trials. In 2019, the IP Court accepted a total of 1,945 technology-related IP cases and concluded 1,433 cases, with a closing rate of 73.7%.
Several key points in the Annual Report of the IP Court are summarized as follows.
(1) Statistical analysis of judgment results
In 2019, the IP Court concluded a total of 1,174 cases of second instance. Among them, 731 cases were concluded with the decisions of the first instance being affirmed; 280 cases were concluded with the appeals being withdrawn, 71 cases were concluded through mediation, with the mediation and withdrawal rate of 30%; and 92 cases were concluded by either being sent back for retrial or reversal of decisions on appeal, with the remand and reversal rate of 8%. Of the 92 send back for retrial or reversal cases concluded by the IP Court, there were 66 civil substantive cases of second instance, 21 cases of second instance on challenge to jurisdiction, and 5 administrative cases of second instance.
Of the 586 civil substantive cases of second instance concluded by the IP Court, 236 were concluded with the decisions of the first instance being affirmed; 213 cases were concluded with the appeals being withdrawn, 71 cases were concluded through mediation, with the mediation and withdrawal rate of 48.5%; and 66 cases were concluded by either being sent back for retrial or reversal of decisions on appeal, with the remand and reversal rate of 11.3%.
Of the 142 administrative cases of second instance concluded by the IP Court, 126 cases were concluded with the decisions of the first instance being affirmed; 11 cases were concluded with the appeals being withdrawn; and 5 cases were concluded by reversal of decisions on appeal, with the reversal rate of 3.5%.
Of the 446 cases of second instance on challenge to jurisdiction concluded by the IP Court, 369 cases were concluded with the decisions of the first instance being affirmed; 56 cases were concluded with the appeals being withdrawn; and 21 cases were concluded by reversal of decisions on appeal, with the reversal rate of 4.7%.
(2) Statistical analysis of trial period
In 2019, the average trial period for substantive cases of second instance tried by the IP Court was 73 days and 29.4 days for cases of second instance on challenge to jurisdiction. The closing rate was 39.2 cases per judge.
(3) Statistical analysis of cases involving a party from foreign country, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan Region In 2019, the IP Court accepted 174 cases involving a party from foreign country, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan region. Among them, there were 50 civil substantive cases of second instance, 52 administrative cases of second instance, 71 cases of second instance on challenge to jurisdiction, and 1 other case. By region, there were 75 cases involving EU countries, 54 cases involving the U.S., 15 cases involving Japan, 4 cases involving South Korea, 2 cases involving Canada and Israel, respectively, 1 case involving Australia and South Africa, respectively, and 20 cases involving Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Region.
The IP Court concluded 98 cases involving a party from foreign country, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan region. Among them, 35 substantive cases were concluded, of which 21 were won by foreign parties (including partially won), 3 were won by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan parties, and 11 were won by parties of the Chinese mainland.
Source:https://www.chinacourt.org/article/detail/2020/04/id/4974262.shtml