By LI Linxu

Thanks to the successful pilot running of a national level appeal hearing mechanism, China has increasingly become a preferred litigation location for international intellectual property (IP) cases.

During its 3 years pilot running period, the IP tribunal of China's Supreme People's Court has accepted 9,458 cases on appeal and concluded 7,680 of them, according to a report delivered by Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court, on February 27.

Among the cases, more than one fifth involved strategic emerging industries, such as the new-generation information technology, bio-medicine, high-end equipment manufacturing, energy conservation and environmental protection, new materials, and new energy, as per the report.

And, more than one tenth of the cases handled by the tribunal are foreign related cases, according to the report. In some cases, all of the interested parties are foreign entities.

Established in 2019, the tribunal is empowered to hear appeals on patents and other technology-related IP cases, as well as anti-monopoly cases, as part of the country's efforts to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and foster a world-class business environment.

PHOTO: VCG

Since establishment, the tribunal has aroused great interest both at home and abroad, making a batch of benchmark rulings with international influence.

The quality and efficiency of trials have been further elevated, said Zhou, citing a survey concluding that more than 80 percent of scientific and technological personnel acknowledged the country's IP protection efforts have been strengthened and the judicial environment for innovation has been improved over the past three years.

The performance of the tribunal has also won high appraisal from the World Intellectual Property Organization, International Court of Justice, and International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property.

Of note is that China has participated in the compilation project of the WIPO International Patent Case Management Judicial Guide, and hosted the EU-China/Singapore-China Conference on IPR Protection, injecting Chinese experience into the global IP governance system.

Chinese courts will also be strengthening the protection of sci-tech innovations and enhance the judicial protection of intellectual property rights for core technologies in key fields and emerging industries, said Zhou, adding that more concrete measures will be taken to maintain fair market competition.

Foreign-related IP cases will be lawfully and impartially handled, and both domestic and foreign right holders will be equally protected, said Zhou.

Meanwhile, he said the country will actively take part in global governance of intellectual property, so as to drive development of the global IP governance system in a more just and equitable direction.