The Beijing Intellectual Property Rights Court launched in November is the first court specializing in IPR cases in China.
The court has accepted 221 cases in its first month, out of which nearly 36% were filed by companies outside the Chinese mainland.
Su Chi, the head of this new court, said the court aims to increase the damages awarded to the owners of intellectual property, while imposing strong penalties on violators in a bid to spur innovation and attract more foreign investment to China.
"The compensations was inadequate and the punitive measures were not stringent enough. Though the law breakers were temporarily hurt by punishments, the weak punishments fail to prevent them from doing the same thing again, which will impede our country's strategy for intellectual property rights protection. And only when the court can carry stringent punishments can the violators really pay the price for their wrong doings."
The court will now take the losses and legal costs of the plaintiffs into full consideration when awarding damages.
The presiding judge explained that foreign companies tend to put huge sums of investment in researches and development of new products.
"A great many applications for patents to the state intellectual property office are sent by foreign companies. These patents are of high quality, because many foreign companies tend to invest hundreds of millions of dollars annually in new products research and to develop new methods. More importantly, without a sound mechanism for intellectual property rights protection, the country can hardly attract foreign investment and new technology."
The judge also pointed out that the legal costs incurred when filing lawsuits and collecting evidence are comparatively high and the whole process is very time consuming.
"When they discover a case of rights infringement, sometimes they'll find it's hard to investigate it thoroughly and get proofs. After they find enough evidence they have to get approval and support from the court. This is a hard process. Finally, after a series of litigations and troubles, they cannot get a suitable sum as compensation. Therefore, many plaintiffs think the court fails to give them enough protection. "
Chief Judge Su Chi says that the court will also launch a new online platform to allow the public to monitor ongoing cases. This aims to make the court proceedings more transparent.
The Beijing IPR court mainly hears administrative cases, in which plaintiffs request government authorities such as the State Intellectual Property Office or SIPO to intervene to protect their intellectual property rights.
The court heard its first case last Tuesday, in which a pharmaceutical company from Zhejiang province sued SIPO to cancel a traditional Chinese medicine patent taken by another pharmaceutical company.
Strengthening the rule of law is a part of the government's strategy to help China's economy transition from "made in China" to "Innovate in China."
For CRI, I'm Yu Yang.
