Since 2009, cases on intellectual property violations handled by courts in Sichuan province have increased by 39.09% annually. Those cases are mainly related to patents, trademarks, copyrights, unfair competition, new plant varieties, integrated circuit layout designs, internet domain names, folk arts and crafts, geographical indications and intangible cultural heritages.

Wang Haiping, President of Sichuan Higher People's Court, reviewed new problems in intellectual property protection at the just-concluded 31st session of the Standing Committee of the 11th People's Congress of Sichuan province.

According to statistics, from 2009 to 2011, courts in the province dealt with a total of 4,227 IP cases, in which civil cases recorded up to 3,780, criminal cases to 420 and administrative cases to 27.

While applauding achievements, courts in the province also noticed new challenges brought by the increasing workload in determining IP cases. Over the past three years, cases regarding IP violations in the province achieved an annual growth rate of 39.09%, 26.6% more than that of cases of other kinds. In the first half of 2012, 1,287 IP cases are newly added, up 60.88% on a year-on-year basis.

Meanwhile, it needs more efforts to investigate those IP cases due to a series of factors including the emerging new technologies and business models, more professional techniques involved in those cases, enormous difficulties in striking a balance between individual rights and social benefit, and higher expectation of case hearing quality and effectiveness, said Wang.

The province is now suffering a drastic shortage of established judges who are capable of expertise in both law and technology. Besides, some market entities are not fully competent in intellectual property utilization and protection, and public IP awareness needs imperatively to be increased, noted Wang, adding that in response to this, the province is striving to cultivate high-end talents and further improve its IP environment.

(Source: IPR in China)