/>iOn December 25, 2024, China’s Supreme People’s Court released the Sixth Five-Year Reform Outline of the People’s Courts (2024-2028) (人民法院第六个五年改革纲要(2024—2028年)). Besides acknowledging the need to “continue to be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” and “thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s Thought on the Rule of Law,” etc. the Plan also makes references to improving intellectual property litigation.
Excerpts from the Plan with respect to intellectual property follow:
8. Improve the judicial guarantee mechanism for a legal business environment.
Protect economic property rights of all kinds of ownership equally and permanently in accordance with the law, and impose equal responsibility, crime and punishment on acts that infringe upon economic property rights and legitimate interests of all kinds of ownership. Improve the handling mechanism and adjudication rules for criminal, administrative and civil cross-cases, clarify the boundaries between crimes and non-crimes of common acts in enterprise-related cases, and prevent and correct the use of administrative and criminal means to interfere in economic disputes. Improve the mechanism for effective prevention and legal identification and correction of wrongful cases involving enterprises. Strengthen judicial regulation of monopoly and unfair competition, formulate and improve relevant judicial interpretations, maintain fair competition order, and promote the construction of a unified national market. Improve the punitive compensation system in the fields of food and drug safety, intellectual property rights, product defects, environmental pollution, and ecological damage. Improve the judicial adjudication rules for administrative agreement cases, promote the construction of a law-based government, and improve the investment and market environment. Improve the bankruptcy trial system, improve the mechanism for the coordinated cooperation and joint handling of bankruptcy cases between the people’s courts and government departments, improve the cross-border bankruptcy assistance mechanism, promote the improvement of the enterprise bankruptcy mechanism, and explore the establishment of a personal bankruptcy system. Strictly regulate the preservation procedures in accordance with the law, explore innovative preservation methods and preservation release mechanisms.
9. Improve the judicial guarantee mechanism for the development of new productivity.
Strengthen judicial protection of intellectual property rights in key core technologies, key areas, emerging industries, etc. Establish and improve the trial and supervision guidance mechanism for major scientific and technological innovation cases. Improve the connection mechanism between administrative law enforcement and judicial trial of intellectual property rights. Improve the judicial protection system for data rights and interests, and improve the rules for judging data property ownership, market transactions, rights and interests distribution, and interest protection. Improve the rules for judging new types of cases involving network infringement, artificial intelligence, algorithms, and unfair competition involving data, and promote the improvement of a sound comprehensive network governance system.
The full text via social media is available here (Chinese only) as the Supreme People’s Court Chinese website remains geoblocked.
