April 19, 2012, the Supreme People’s Court issued a white paper on intellectual property protection by Chinese people’s courts in 2011. IP Dragon has made an analysis of the the 64 page document.
The white paper makes the growth of the case load (from around 5,000 cases in 2001 to almost 60,000 cases) in the civil, administrative and criminal courts and the relative numbers in copyright, trademark and patent cases, and high-profile cases.
The growth seems impressive, but in relation to a population of 1.3 billion people, 60,000 intellectual property cases is maybe not peanuts but pine nuts, which at least has connotations of longevity and immortality. It means there is one intellectual property case in every 21.7 million people. If one would apply such numbers to a country like Australia with a comparable population (22.8 million people) it would mean that they would have only one intellectual property case per year.
Civil courts
Most cases dealt with copyright law, followed by trademark and patent law.
35,185 were copyright cases, up 42.34% year-on-year;
12,991 were trademark cases, up 53.56% year-on-year;
7,819 were patent cases, up 35.16% year-on-year;
1137 were competition cases (18 were monopoly-related), up 0.53% year-on-year;
557 were technology contract cases, down 16.87% year-on-year;
2,193 were other intellectual property cases, up 11.55% year-on-year.
Incredibly, for a country of 1.3 billion people the courts admitted only:
186 applications for pre-trial preservation of evidence;
130 applications for preliminary injunction;
20 applications for pre-trial preservation of property.
High-profile civil court cases:
- Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai v. Guangdong Midea Air-Conditioning Equipment Co., Ltd, and Zhuhai Taifeng Electric Appliances Co., Ltd (patent infringement);
- Guangzhou Hongtaiyang Auto Components Co., Ltd. v. Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co., Ltd (infringement of the exclusive right to use registered trademark);
- E-Land International Fashion (Shanghai) Co. v. Zhejiang Taobao Network Co., Ltd. and Du Guofa (trademark infringement);
- Société Civile de Château Lafite Rothschild v. Shenzhen Jinhongde Trade Co., Ltd. and Health Industry Development Co., Ltd. under Hunan Biological & Pharmaceutical Group (infringement of the exclusive right to use registered trademark and unfair competition);
- Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Company Limited, v. Beijing Qihoo Technology Ltd., Beijing Sanji Wuxian Network Technology Co., Ltd., and Qizhi Software (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (unfair competition);
- Beijing Kaixinren Information Technology Co., Ltd v. Beijng Qianxiang Hulian Technology Development Co., Ltd. and Beijing Qianxiang Wangjing Technology Development Co., Ltd. (unfair competition).
Administrative courts
Most cases dealt with trademark law, followed by patent law and copyright law.
1,767 were trademark cases, down 12.78% year-on-year;
654 were patent cases, up 18.69% year-on-year;
2 were copyright cases, unchanged from the previous year;
10 were other intellectual property cases.
High profile administrative cases:
- Wei Tingjian and T.C. Pharmaceutical Industries Co., Ltd v. Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (administrative dispute over reconsideration decision on trademark cancellation);
- Beijing Resources Double-crane Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Xiangbei Welman Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. v. Patent Re-examination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office (administrative dispute over patent invalidation);
- France Castel Frères SAS v. Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and Li Daozhi (administrative dispute relating to a review decision on trademark revocation).
Criminal courts
Most cases involved trademark counterfeits. The copyright piracy cases are completely absent.
2,417 involved registered trademarks, such as use of counterfeit marks, up 142.19% year-on-year;
1,747 were intellectual property infringement cases involving the crime of illegal business operations, down 15.93% year-on-year;
774 were intellectual property infringement cases involving the crime of production and sale of sub-standard products, up 29.87% year-on-year;
52 were cases of other nature.
High profile criminal case:
- Ju Wenming, Xu Lulu and Hua Yi, who were convicted of copyright infringement.