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Hearings of IP disputes exceed expectations
Three Chinese intellectual property courts have heard more than 10,000 lawsuits in the first eightmonths of this year, greatly exceeding expectations, the Supreme People's Court of China said.
By Aug 20, the IP courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province had heard 10,795 cases,of which 4,160 had been concluded, according to statistics released by the top court.
The courts, established at the end of last year, are the enforcement arm of judicial reform putforward by China's top leaders in 2013, aiming to improve the professionalism of case hearingsand boost the quality of trials, the top court said.
Wang Chuang, deputy director of the IP department under the supreme court, said during a pressconference on Sept 9 that the number of IP lawsuits had an average annual growth of 37.6percent from 2008 to 2012, 5.5 times faster than other types of civil lawsuits.
The figures were "much more than expected", Wang said, adding thatIP rights protection has been highlighted in the public eye.
To handle the rapidly increasing number of cases, the three IP courtsare also taking action to alleviate problems as soon as possible, hesaid.
For example, the Beijing IP court is setting up a database oftechnological experts who can act as a think tank for judges, said SuChi, the Beijing court's president.
"We also ask for advice from IP scholars in universities and colleges, ina bid to know and master the very advanced technologies that show upin our cases," Su said.
The IP court in Shanghai has also launched a website in English to publish IP verdicts forforeigners.
"IP disputes often involve foreigners and foreign enterprises," said Wu Xielin, president of theShanghai IP court. "The English website can help them track their lawsuits and understand howChinese judges make judgments, which is good for boosting our judicial credibility and providingconvenience to litigants.
"We also have asked our judges to operate and update the website, hoping to improve theirEnglish in this way," Wu said, suggesting the model be extended to the other two courts.
Tao Kaiyuan, vice-president of the supreme court, praised the achievements of the three courts,encouraging them to explore more judicial reform and be legal pioneers for China.
The Beijing Intellectual Property Court is working on a database oftechnological experts to act as a think tank for judges. Provided toChina Daily