On 20 Apr. 2023, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the “Intellectual Property Protection by Chinese Courts in 2022” (hereinafter the “Report”, 中国法院知识产权司法保护状况（2022年）), introducing the situation of courts nationwide in adjudicating intellectual property cases.
This Report is published in both Chinese and English.
In 2022, Chinese courts newly accepted 526,165 IP cases of first instance, second instance, and remanded for retrial, and concluded 543,379 cases (including carried over cases, ditto hereinafter), a year-on-year decrease of 18.17% and 9.67%, respectively.
SPC specified that cases involving ownership and infringement disputes related to invention patents, utility model patents, new plant varieties, integrated circuit layout designs, trade secrets, and computer software shall be centrally adjudicated by the intellectual property courts, intermediate people’s courts of provincial capitals, and intermediate people’s courts designated by the Supreme People’s Court.
SPC has established the intellectual property trial framework, including the IP trial department of the SPC, four demonstrating IP courts, twenty seven IP divisions of local intermediate courts and the other IP divisions of local courts.
In 2022, Chinese courts concluded nearly 9,000 IP cases of first instance involving foreign parties.
In 2022, Chinese courts deepened judicial IP cooperation with other nations and regions. The Supreme People’s Court sent judges to participate in the Third China-ASEAN Justice Forum and the Fourth Session for the China-Singapore Supreme Courts Joint Working Group, and co-organized with the European Union the Seminar on Specialized Litigation Procedures for IP Cases. Judges were also sent to attended conferences including the 2022 WIPO Intellectual Property Judges Forum, the WIPO Assemblies Side Event: WIPO ADR for IPOs and Courts, the Fifteenth Session of the Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE), as well as the 13th Meeting of the Russia China Working Group on Cooperation in Protection of IPRs, which was organized by the Ministry of Commerce of China.
Cover Photo by Man Chung on Unsplash
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
