How the Chinese Supreme Court has changed patent litigation

Without much fanfare, on December 16 2011, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) issued judicial guidelines for IP infringement adjudication entitled Opinion on Several Issues Relating to Sufficient Utilisation of IP Adjudication to Foster Development and Prosperity of Socialist Culture and to Promote Autonomous and Coordinated Economic Development. Evident from the title, political rhetoric on how to strengthen China's IP enforcement and promote self-reliant innovations permeates the Opinion. Politics aside, the SPC stressed the importance of ensuring correct rulings by first instance courts providing prompt judicial relief. First instance courts should achieve a high rate of acceptance of their rulings (by the parties) reducing the rate of appeal.

Besides the inspirational goals, the Opinion set forth principles for adjudication of patent, trademark and copyright infringement disputes, as well as unfair competition claims (including trade secret misappropriation). The Opinion not only reiterated the continued vitality of certain existing rules but also enunciated new ones for IP adjudication. Some of these new principles represent significant changes in the law.