The attached English version of the SPC IP Court annual report is from Fan Li of CCPIT.

Several thoughts:

  • Rule-of-law? I believe rule-by-law is a better reflection. If you do not appreciate the difference, let's talk privately.
  • The numbers are staggering (in 2022, 6183 new IP cases including 4405 newly accepted cases and 1705 lingering cases, and 3468 closed cases). Each judge accepted 142.5 new cases (has to decide about one case within 2.5 days, assuming working all year round). I believe such numbers are unbelievable at even district court level, let alone a supreme court.
  • Utility model disputes are higher than invention patent by 50% (968 vs 615), and there are significant number of ownership disputes (312). Whoever said utility model in China is useless, these numbers said otherwise.
  • Interesting to see that trade secret cases are of low number (78), while this is always a hot topic at the IPO.
  • The overall overturning rate is only 13.5% in 2022 (already way better than 12.9% from 2019-2022). Good luck if you are appealing at the SPC.
  • The report specifically stated that the SPC would prioritize cases in frontier technologies including seed industry, medicine, chips (semiconductor) and telecommunication. This is good, but what about other fields like AI and space technologies?
  • Good to see that the SPC is working on pro-IP, strong effective, efficient, equal, good-faith, and coordinated protection. I am sure that these are more mere propaganda.
  • Interesting to see the SPC direction on monopoly (working against).
  • In 2022, only 9% of the cases involved foreign parties. Overall, only 4%. That is, most of the disputes at the SPC are Chinese companies fighting against other Chinese companies.

Download : SPC IP Court Annual Report - 2022

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