On the morning of August 11, Quality Brands Protection Committee of China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (QBPC) Chair Michael Ding led a QBPC group to call on the 3rd Civil Tribunal of Shandong Provincial High People's Court and held a discussion on the protection of IPR with the judges.
Michael Ding introduced the history, structure and priorities of the QBPC. As a star project of QBPC, the Annual Top Ten Cases Selection had been held for 21 times. The selected cases were all highly representative and forward-looking, reflecting the hot and difficult issues of IPR, which were well acknowledged by the judicial and law enforcement departments at central and local levels. The number of candidate cases was as high as 74 this year, making it the most competitive in history. Two cases handled by Shandong Provincial High People’s Court won the QBPC 2021-2022 Annual Top Ten Cases.
The judges introduced the judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the province in five aspects, including continuously promoting professional trials, continuously strengthening equal protection, implementing the punitive compensation system, continuing to deepen judicial reform, and continuing to create a fair as well as transparent rule of law environment. The QBPC delegation was invited to watch a promotion vedio titled "Efforts of Twenty Years - Shandong Intellectual Property Trial in Progress". According to the host, the protection of IPR was the protection of innovation, Shandong courts were committed to creating a market-oriented, rule-of-law and international business environment, serving the country as a whole, and strengthening the protection of the whole chain of IPR. Since its establishment, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Shandong Provincial High People's Court had adhered to professional trials, high-quality trials, refined management, and continued to strengthen the concept of equal protection. Since 2001, it had accepted more than 150,000 cases, and some cases had been rated as "Guiding Cases", "Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases of Chinese Courts" and "50 Typical Intellectual Property Cases" by the Supreme People's Court (SPC). Meanwhile they actively promoted the application of punitive damages, took the lead in issuing the "Guidelines for the Adjudication of Punitive Damages applicable to the Trial of Civil Cases of Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights", promoted the "three in one" reform of intellectual property adjudication, strengthened the construction of smart courts, continued to promote business environment innovation, and continued to create a fair and transparent legal environment. The court had gradually become the preferred place for international dispute resolution in the field of intellectual property rights.
In the exchange session, the two sides conducted an in-depth discussion on the judicial practice of IPR abroad and the protection of various intellectual property rights on the platform of the QBPC.