From April 1, 2010, Dongguan Municipal No.1 Intermediate People's Court will have right to judge IPR-related cases for first instance happening in the prefecture of the three grass-root courts except cases related to patents, new plant varieties and layout designs of integrated circuits, and cases involving the cognizance of well-known trademarks. Dongguan Municipal No.1 Intermediate People's Court will obtain right of giving final approval to some IPR cases.
Right of giving final approval
Dongguan Municipal No.1 Intermediate People's Court set up intellectual property room in 2006. Then there were only 4 judges and that year, only 51 cases were received in all. In 2009, the number of judges increased to 13 and the cases rose to 671. During the several years, the cases of trial of second instance were 189, the rate was 14.07%; only 25 cases were changed the original sentence.
Dongguan Municipal No.1 Intermediate People's Court said that, after several years of practice and training, the court has gestated IPR case trial talents. Lately, the Supreme People's Court and Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court noticed that Dongguan Municipal No.1 Intermediate People's Court can judge some IPR cases for first instance. Accordingly, Dongguan Municipal No.1 Intermediate People's Court obtained rights of giving final approval to some IPR cases.
Blowout of IPR cases
"That Dongguan Municipal No.1 Intermediate People's Court got the right of giving final approval to some IPR cases is a landmark to the judicial protection of intellectual property rights in Dongguan, and also a good fortune for Dongguan's industry innovation and economic structure upgrading." With the increase of IPR cases in Dongguan, the personnel in Dongguan Municipal No.1 Intermediate People's Court can hardly meet the requirements of case trial. So transferring the jurisdiction of some IPR cases to grass-root courts is propitious to preventing the parties concerned from misusing their rights and optimizing judicial resources.
Source: IPR in China
