Fine tuning by XIE CHUANJIAO(China Daily)

China's top court will issue judicial interpretations on well-known trademarks probably within the year as the country vies to further improve protection for intellectual property rights.

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) is also mulling over judicial interpretations on the determination standards for patent rights infringements, according to SPC Vice-President Xi Xiaoming.

The SPC will pay attention to copyright protection to deal with the emergence of law application issues brought by P2P (peer to peer)file sharing, search engine technologies and online games, he says.

The SPC opened a website in March 2006 to publish the written judgment and ruling of IPR cases nationwide. It has become an important window for the understanding of Chinese judicial protections regarding IPR at home and abroad.

By the end of last year more than 30,000 written verdicts have been made public on the website.

China's judicial protection for intellectual property rights (IPR) has been improving in recent years, and so has its transparency, Xi says.

From 2003 to 2007 courts have dealt with more than 64,000 IPR-related first instance cases, a 20 percent increase year-on-year.

Last year alone there were 17,877 civil cases of first instance involved with IPR, up by 26 percent from 2006.

"The increase of IPR trials cases indicates that IPR judicial protection has earned extensive trust and recognition from all social aspects," Xi says.

"The most significance to the IPR trials in recent years lies in the obvious improvement of judicial efficiency, which has basically adapted to the needs of the nation's innovative development and external exchange," Xi continues.

The Compendium of National Intellectual Property Strategy first formally issued by the Chinese government on June 5 said the country would continue to improve IPR trials and litigation systems so that judicial protection should play its leading role.

The SPC has issued 21 IPR judicial interpretations since 2001, covering online copyrights, technical contracts, unfair competition, new plant species, rights conflicts and IPR crimes.

IPR judicial protection is achieved through civil, criminal and administrative trials.

According to Jiang Zhipei, chief justice of the SPC's IPR Tribunal, more rights holders have turned to criminal trials for better compensation from the SPC and the Supreme People's Procuratorate lowering the threshold for IPR criminal punishment.

In IPR infringement cases with illicit income reaching 30,000 yuan and above violators can be prosecuted for criminal liability, with possible jail sentences from one to seven years.

Last year courts have concluded 2,684 IPR criminal cases related to IPR and sentenced 4,322 offenders.

Jiang says courts emphasized the importance of heavy compensation for IPR damages.

Last June the SPC awarded Japan's Yamaha Motor the highest-ever damages for a trademark infringement case in China involving a foreign investor, 8.3 million yuan, against Zhejiang Huatian, one of China's largest motorcycle makers.

However, the country is still facing IPR judicial challenges.

A number of IPR trials are complicated cases or new types that challenging existing laws regarding IPR protection.

"The application of law should both protect lawful interests of rights holders and avoid hindering technological development because of overprotection," Xi says. "We will try to well strike a balance of the benefits between rights holders and the social public."

Both officials call on international cooperation for IPR protection.

"Compared with the 300-year development of IPR systems in developed countries, China does have many problems remaining," Xi says.

"We have to strike a balance between encouraging innovation and promoting competition, on the basis of current social and economic development and productivity development levels."

Reform of IPR trial patterns

Chinese courts will improve trial system to enhance IPR judicial protection efficiency, says Jiang.

Jiang says according to the compendium a comprehensive trial pattern combining civil, criminal as well as administrative trials should be the future trend for IPR trials due to the specialized nature of intellectual property rights cases and the advanced nature of the technologies often involved.

"The compendium said China will research the establishment of special IPR tribunals that can deal with IPR cases with the civil, criminal and administrative disputes involved," Jiang says.

As the country is in a transitional period and market economy order is still being standardized, there will be increasing numbers and categories of IPR cases.

"A great deal of IPR disputes will comprise of the three kinds of disputes," Jiang adds.

The Chinese court system has separate trials on IPR related cases that involve IPR infringements as well as criminal and administrative disputes, the practice of which has separated judicial resources and led to a decline in judicial functions, the official says.

To date a number of courts have piloted the comprehensive trials, with good results.

Xi'an Municipal Intermediate People's Court adopted a comprehensive trial system in 2006.

"We have set up special tribunals with judges who have a good command of the law and economic and technology knowledge as most IPR cases are complicated and highly technical," says Sun Hailong, vice-president of the Xi'an court.

Editor's note: The IPR Special is sponsored by the State Intellectual Property Office and published by China Business Weekly. To contact the Intellectual Property Office, the IPR Special hotlines are 8610-64995422 or 8610-64995826, and the e-mail address is ipr@chinadaily.com.cn