Haikou Intellectual Property Court, one year on
On November 9, Haikou City Intermediate People’s Court, Haikou City Market Supervision Administration and Haikou City Intellectual Property Office held a joint press conference to announce recent judicial protection work in Haikou.
On April 11, 2019, the Supreme People’s Court approved the establishment of the Haikou Intellectual Property Court within the Haikou Intermediate Court to centralize jurisdiction over intellectual property cases across the province.
At the same time, they approved the cross-regional jurisdiction of the Haikou Qiongshan District People’s Court and the Sanya Suburban People’s Court for ordinary first-instance intellectual property cases with a bid value of less than 2 million yuan across the province.
On September 26, 2019, the Haikou Intellectual Property Court was established.
From September 2019 to September 2020, Haikou Intermediate Court, Qiongshan Court, and Sanya Suburban Court (also referred to as the two – levels court) accepted a total of 1,720 intellectual property cases.
This is more than two times the amount of cases compared with 2016 – August 2019 which had a total of 775 intellectual property cases before centralized jurisdiction.
As of September 2020, 1,074 cases have been closed, with a case closure rate of 62.44 %.
The number of intellectual property cases accepted in the province has increased significantly, the influence of Hainan’s judicial protection of intellectual property rights has continued to increase in a drive to create a rule of law and internationalization to facilitate the business environment.
According to statistics, 99.77% of the cases accepted were civil cases involving intellectual property rights.
The types of cases accepted are still dominated by intellectual property infringement disputes, which are usually commercial rights protection activities.
Copyright, trademark and patent infringement
Among the 1,686 first-instance civil cases accepted by the courts, copyright infringement accounted for 80.49%, trademark infringement accounted for 10.32%, and patent infringement accounted for 5.87%.
Foreign related intellectual property cases
The number of foreign-related intellectual property cases has gradually increased.
From September 2019 to September 2020, the two-level court accepted 29 foreign-related intellectual property cases, and the right holders involved the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Italy amongst other countries.
As more multinational companies have chosen the courts of Hainan for the settlement of foreign-related intellectual property disputes, the level and ability of judicial protection of intellectual property in Hainan has gradually increased.
A spokesperson for the Haikou Intermediate People’s Court stated that the Haikou Intellectual Property Court will focus on the new tasks and requirements of the Hainan Free Trade Port and the next step is to innovate work ideas, promote the overall improvement of the level of judicial protection of intellectual property rights and promote the development goal of “the transition from an intellectual property tribunal to an intellectual property court”.
The aim is to provide a more powerful judicial guarantee for promoting the formation of a legal, international and a more convenient, business environment in the Hainan Free Trade Port.
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