Luo Dongchuan, vice president of the Supreme People's court and President of the intellectual property division, said in an exclusive interview with China Daily recently that the intellectual property court of the Supreme People's court, which has been established for more than one year, has operated well, and its advantage of "leap appeal" system with Chinese characteristics is gradually emerging, playing an important role in unifying the standards of adjudication and improving the efficiency of adjudication.

On January 1, 2019, the intellectual property court of the Supreme People's court was inaugurated in Beijing, with centralized and unified jurisdiction over civil and administrative appeals of technological intellectual property such as patents nationwide. The intellectual property court of the Supreme People's court shall accept all appeals brought by the intermediate people's court or the higher people's court.

"In short, the newly established court has leapt over the higher people's court in the jurisdiction of appeal of technology intellectual property cases in the first instance of the intermediate people's court, forming a" leap appeal " Luo Dongchuan said. "The establishment of this intellectual property court is a major decision made by the Party Central Committee and also a major reform. The "leap appeal" system with Chinese characteristics makes the intellectual property trial very different from the past. "

Luo Dongchuan showed reporters a set of data: in 2019, the intellectual property court of the Supreme People's court accepted 1684 cases of various second instance. Among them, 1678 are intermediate people's courts of first instance, accounting for 99.6%; 6 are higher people's courts of first instance, accounting for 0.4%.

According to him, the types of patents in these cases cover medicine, communications, machinery, agriculture and forestry, which are closely related to the national economy, people's livelihood, people's clothing, food, housing and transportation. At the same time, there are 17 cases in which the amount of infringement compensation claimed by the obligee in the first instance exceeds 10 million yuan, and 3 cases in which the amount exceeds 100 million yuan.

"It can be seen that most of the cases accepted by the court in the past year are directly from the" leap appeal "of the middle court to the intellectual property court, and the cases involve a wide range of technical fields and have a great social impact." Luo Dongchuan said.
He pointed out that in the process of hearing these cases, the advantages of the "leap appeal" system have also been revealed, which not only helps to unify the judgment standards and shorten the dispute resolution cycle, but also highlights the judicial policies and rules of the highest judicial level in China in dealing with technical intellectual property cases.

"If a party refuses to accept the technical intellectual property cases heard by the middle court, he can directly appeal to the intellectual property court of the Supreme People's court over the trials of more than 30 local high courts, which makes the procedure more intensive and also helps to unify the judgment standards of such difficult and complex technical cases." Luo Dongchuan said. "In other words, we have formed a mechanism of" one game of the whole country, one line up and one line down "to solve disputes in similar cases and improve trial efficiency."

"At the same time, the establishment of the court also shortens the trial cycle." "Due to the interweaving of civil and administrative procedures, the difficulty of finding out technical facts and other factors, the trial cycle of patent cases is generally long," he said. After "leap appeal", the average trial period of the second instance substantive cases concluded by the court in 2019 is only 73 days, and the problem of long rights protection period has been effectively improved. "

In addition, the establishment of the intellectual property court of the Supreme People's court also plays a role in optimizing the allocation of trial resources. "The most prominent feature of technical case hearing is that it involves more complicated technical fact finding. Limited by various factors, the people's court is generally short of technical investigators. The intellectual property court can focus on the advantages of hearing, and through the establishment of "national court technical investigation talent pool" and "national court technical investigation resource sharing mechanism", implement national resource sharing for technical investigators, and coordinate the allocation and mutual support. " Luo added.

As a driving force of national innovation, intellectual property, especially patents, has been paid more and more attention to by domestic enterprises in recent years, and has become a necessary factor for their high-quality development and going to the world. "In this environment, the trial of intellectual property cases involving foreign affairs is becoming more and more important. It allows Chinese courts to clarify their judicial protection positions and let the world hear China's voice of strengthening intellectual property protection. " Luo Dongchuan said.

In 2019, the intellectual property court of the Supreme People's court accepted 174 cases involving foreign affairs, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. According to regional statistics, it mainly involves European Union countries and the United States. "In dealing with foreign-related cases, the court insists on equal protection and equal treatment of intellectual property rights of all kinds of market subjects at home and abroad according to law," Luo Dongchuan said. "It also puts forward the application plan of Chinese laws on cutting-edge issues through judging benchmark cases, so as to influence and promote the formation and development of intellectual property protection rules."

When talking about the future development direction of the court, Luo Dongchuan told reporters that in addition to the patent litigation system, the Supreme People's court will further improve the technology identification mechanism, give full play to the guiding role of typical cases in the judicial decision, promote the unification of the rules of decision, and let the people truly feel the strengthening of judicial protection and see the actual effect. "In addition, the court will continue to adhere to the global vision, establish an international image of China's emphasis on intellectual property protection, and deliver the strongest voice of China's strengthening intellectual property protection to the world."

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