Explore the road of professional adjudication innovation and practice the aspiration of intellectual property power

Author: Jin Xuejun (Secretary of the Party Group and President of the Beijing Intellectual Property Court)

In September this year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Outline for the Construction of an Intellectual Property Power (2021-2035), which is China's first strategic plan for an "intellectual property power", drawing a new picture of China's future strategy of intellectual property power, providing a fundamental compliance and action guide for doing a good job in intellectual property protection in the new era, marking that the intellectual property protection in the new era has entered a new stage.

Exploring the establishment of a complete judicial protection system for intellectual property rights is closely related to the strategy of intellectual property power. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has attached great importance to the judicial protection of intellectual property rights and made a series of major decisions and deployments. In 2014, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court and the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court were established successively, marking a new stage in China's efforts to strengthen the judicial protection of intellectual property rights and promote the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy.

As the first intellectual property court established in China, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court has concluded more than 110,000 intellectual property cases in the past seven years, and the case structure has shown the characteristics of large number, rapid growth, concentrated technical cases, and rapid growth of administrative authorization and confirmation cases, showing four new trends: First, the number of cases involving major high-tech strategic industries and core technologies has increased, covering standard necessary patents, integrated circuit layout design, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials and new energy industries, biomedicine and other fields Second, the degree of internationalization of the judiciary is prominent. Accepted 22,000 foreign-related cases, accounting for nearly 1/5, and the parties covered more than 90 countries and regions around the world; third, the number of new types of dispute cases increased, and new types of intellectual property disputes such as musical fountains, sports events, and sound trademarks appeared; fourth, the number of cases with huge litigation targets increased, and the market value and the amount of compensation claimed by corresponding litigation claims continued to increase.

In the face of the above new situation, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court has continuously deepened its understanding of the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of important speeches, closely combined with the requirements related to the judicial adjudication of intellectual property rights put forward in the Outline, and opened up an innovative road for judicial adjudication of intellectual property rights.

The first is to combine the construction of a "high-level intellectual property adjudication institution" proposed in the Outline, strengthen the construction of trial organizations, optimize case trial procedures, and vigorously promote the construction of smart courts. In terms of the construction of trial organizations, further explore and improve the appeal trial mechanism, actively promote the reform of the "three-in-one" trial mechanism for civil, criminal, and administrative cases, and give full play to the advantages of trials that are specialized in trial, centralized in jurisdiction, and contracted in assembly. Strengthen the professional training and professional selection of judges, strengthen the construction of the team of technical investigators, and improve the efficiency of use and radiation. In terms of optimizing case trial procedures, we will further promote "litigation source governance", promote the intensification of pre-trial affairs and the standardization of transactional work. Promote the diversion of complicated and simple cases, optimize trial procedures, and bring about the speedy handling of simple cases and the refined trial of difficult cases. In terms of the construction of smart courts, accelerate the construction of remote litigation platforms and the electronic application of various litigation activities.

The second is to combine the task of "unifying the standards and application of laws for judicial adjudication of intellectual property rights and improving the adjudication rules" proposed in the Outline, and solidly promoting judgments that are fair, reasonable, and exemplary. As a national intellectual property case guidance research base, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court regards the improvement of adjudication rules as its own responsibility, promotes the open judicial process and the reasoning of adjudication, and enhances judicial authority, demonstrates judicial wisdom, and standardizes judicial behavior through unified adjudication standards. At the same time, we will continue to increase our protection efforts and make full use of legal provisions and various litigation measures. Apply punitive damages in accordance with law, give play to the exemplary role of typical cases, and continuously improve judicial deterrence.

The third is to combine the requirements of "strict protection of intellectual property rights in accordance with the law" put forward in the "Outline", and strive to let the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case. Combined with the particularity of intellectual property court adjudication, strictly implement the new Copyright Law, give play to the guiding and guiding function of copyright adjudication for excellent culture, fully implement the new Patent Law, give full play to the advantages of centralized trial of technical cases, strengthen judicial review of administrative acts of authorizing and confirming rights, prevent and crack down on improper applications, and improve the quality of patents. Strengthen technical support forces, shorten the trial cycle, increase the judicial protection of intellectual property rights such as key core technologies, emerging industries, key areas and seed sources; strengthen the protection of commercial marks, and improve the quality of trial of administrative cases of trademark authorization and confirmation. Strengthen the punishment of acts such as malicious preemptive registration and hoarding of trademarks, guide the actual use of trademarks, and promote the healthy and standardized order of trademark application and registration; strengthen the trial of anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition cases, issue guidelines for the production of evidence in trade secrets, eliminate market barriers, solve the problem of presenting evidence, promote the establishment of an intellectual property market mechanism with orderly transactions and full realization of value; attach importance to research on the protection mechanism of traditional knowledge, folklore, intangible cultural heritage, and traditional Chinese medicine patents, and properly define the subjects of rights and the scope of rights, Promote the effective interface between the protection of traditional knowledge and the modern INTELLECTUAL system. In addition, while strengthening the protection of knowledge in traditional areas, it is necessary to respond in a timely manner and rationally protect intellectual property rights in emerging and specific areas.

The fourth is to actively integrate and promote the construction of an all-round protection mechanism for intellectual property rights in combination with the "Opening up the whole chain of intellectual property creation, application, protection, management and service" proposed in the Outline. Issue evidentiary guidelines and judicial suggestions on strengthening trade secret protection, application of punitive damages, filing of civil cases linked to pharmaceutical patents, anti-monopoly judicial review, etc., in response to the hot concerns of innovative entities at home and abroad; go deep into scientific research institutions and science and technology innovation enterprises to concentrate on source interpretation and law popularization, and shape the cultural concept of intellectual property rights that respects knowledge, advocates innovation, is honest and law-abiding, and fair competition; establishes a linkage mechanism with intellectual property administrative organs and industry associations to connect and interact with infringement and carry out infringement "Cutting tree roots" type of source governance and chain attack. Timely issue typical cases and evidence guidelines to effectively regulate improper patent applications and bad faith trademark squatting. Persist in attaching equal importance to protection and punishment, condemn and sanction dishonest litigation conduct, and create a good litigation environment.

Fifth, in combination with the spirit of "deepening the reform in the field of intellectual property rights" proposed in the Outline, we will continue to give play to the role of the judicial protection system in stimulating innovation. Give play to the role of the "vanguard" and "test field" of judicial reform in the field of intellectual property rights, strive to solve the institutional problems that restrict the protection of intellectual property rights, continuously increase the intensity of judicial protection, and give play to the role of the judiciary in governance, standardization and leadership of the economy and society. Establish professional committees, professional judges' conferences, professional judge teams, and research groups under the adjudication committee, continue to explore mechanisms for the adjudication committee to openly try cases, and improve the trial supervision and management system. Explore a special procedures system that conforms to the rules of intellectual property adjudication. Consolidate the personnel system for judges and the judicial responsibility system, improve focus-type trials, consistent trials of litigation and trials, abstract-type high-quality documents, element-based simple documents, and public minority opinions, establish a multi-technical fact-finding system covering academicians, experts, and technical personnel, to ensure the efficiency, quality, and credibility of case trials.

Sixth, in combination with the "global intellectual property governance" proposed in the Outline, we should deeply participate in exchanges in the field of international intellectual property rights and create a "preferred place" for international intellectual property litigation. The judicial protection of intellectual property rights has the characteristics of procedural standardization, adequacy of evidence, openness of the process, rationality of documents, and finality of adjudication, and has become an important force in the internationally accepted intellectual property protection system. The Beijing Intellectual Property Court strengthens the internationalization of the judicial team, properly hears major intellectual property disputes related to international trade, and enhances the internationalization level and competitiveness of intellectual property judicial rights. Give play to the role of professional courts in international exchanges and cooperation, and tell the story of China's intellectual property judicial.

In the face of the strategic opportunities and challenges of building an intellectual property power in the new era, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court will bravely undertake the mission of the times, respond to the requirements of high-quality development and the changing trend of international and domestic intellectual property rights in a timely manner, give full play to the role of special courts and the advantages of judicial specialization, adhere to reform and innovation, continue to improve the level of judicial protection of intellectual property rights, explore the road of specialized adjudication of intellectual property rights with Chinese characteristics, and strive to become a window for the world to observe the judicial protection of Intellectual Property rights in China.

Guangming Daily ( October 30, 2021 07 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily