Last year saw 50% increase in intellectual property cases, and cases on copyright, patent and trademark soaring

February 6, 2005

Last year saw 50% increase in intellectual property cases, and cases on copyright, patent and trademark soaring
Report from Xinhua News Agency, Beijing on February 15, latest judicial statistics from the Supreme People's Court show that: 2004 saw an increase in various intellectual property cases, especially the cases concerning copyright, patent and trademark are surging.

Statistics show, in the aspect of civil judicial protection, people's courts at various levels heard and decided first-instance intellectual property cases of totally 8832 in 2004, with a year-on-year increase of 46.82%. Cases related to copyright, patent and trademark all increased obviously, in which the highest increase occurred with the copyright cases, 4,264 first-instance cases were accepted in 2004, a yearly increase of 70.99%.

In the hearing, courts at all levels paid much attention, actively and cautiously applied such temporary measures as temporary injunction, pre-action custody of property, pre-action custody of evidence, and such litigation measures as custody of property and prior execution, so as to immediately stop infringements and effectively prevent the owners from losses.

In the aspect of criminal judicial protection, in the wake of issuing of Notice on Further Enhancing Judicial Protection over Intellectual Property by the Supreme People's Court in September 2004, the Supreme People's Procuratorate published “Interpretation on Several Questions in Relation to the Applicable Laws in Handling Criminal Case that Infringes Intellectual Property” on December 21, 2004, further strengthening the criminal protection over intellectual property.