Remarkable Progress Made in Acceptance of IPRs Cases

According to the report from the National Conference for Presidents of High People's Courts held in January 2006, during the first 11 months in 2005, courts nationwide accepted 3,250 criminal cases involving IPRs, up 28.21 percent from the same period of 2004 and 12,700 civil IPRs disputation cases at first instance, up 26.94 percent from the same period of 2004.

Mr. Xiao Yang, President of the Supreme People's Court said on the conference that the judicial protection of IPRs would be further strengthened and the courts at various levels should fight severely against crimes infringing IPRs to help build up a judicial environment that encourages innovation.

He also mentioned that intellectual rights of scientific talents, authors and high-tech enterprises would be protected by adopting various judicial remedies and civil punishment measures to stop and punish IPRs infringement, counterfeit and piracy.

In addition, he remarked that various levels of courts should protect IPRs on the Internet according to the law and actively accept cases over civil rights and interests disputes on domain names and trademark.

Finally, he said that the judicial interpretations on unfair competitions, new plant variety infringements and music television videos should be instituted as soon as possible in order to protect IPRs in accordance with law.