On December 25, 2024, China’s Supreme Court released the Sixth Five-Year Reform Review of the People’s Courts (2024-2028) (人民法院第六个五年改革纲要(2024-2028年)). In addition to recognizing the need to “continue to be guided by Xi Jinping’s thinking on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era” and “thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s thinking on the rule of law,” etc., the plan also includes references to improving intellectual property litigation. .
Excerpts from the Plan regarding intellectual property follow:
8. Improve the judicial guarantee mechanism for a legal business environment.
Protect economic property rights of all types of property equally and permanently in accordance with the law, and impose equal responsibility, crime and punishment on acts that violate economic property rights and legitimate interests of all types of property. 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 with economic processes. disputes. Improve the mechanism for effective prevention and legal identification and correction of unlawful cases involving enterprises. Strengthen the judicial regulation of monopoly and unfair competition, formulating and improving relevant legal interpretations, maintaining a fair competitive order and promoting the construction of a unified national market. Improve the punitive compensation system in the areas of food and drug safety, intellectual property rights, product defects, environmental pollution and ecological damage. Improve judicial adjudication rules for administrative agreements, promote the building of a law-based government and improve the investment and market environment. Improve the system of bankruptcy proceedings, improve the mechanism for coordinated cooperation and joint handling of bankruptcy cases between people’s courts and government departments, improve the cross-border bankruptcy assistance mechanism, promote the improvement of the bankruptcy mechanism for enterprises, and explore the establishment of a personal bankruptcy system. Arrange custody procedures strictly in accordance with the law, explore innovative preservation methods and custody release mechanisms.
9. Improve the judicial guarantee mechanism for the development of new productivity.
Strengthen the legal protection of intellectual property rights in key core technologies, key areas, emerging industries, etc. Establish and improve the adjudication and supervision guidance mechanism for key cases of scientific and technological innovation. Improve the linkage mechanism between administrative law enforcement and judicial adjudication of intellectual property rights. Improve the legal protection system for data rights and interests, and improve the rules for assessing data property ownership, market transactions, distribution of rights and interests, and interest protection. Improve the rules for assessing new types of cases involving network infringement, artificial intelligence, algorithms and unfair competition involving data, and promote the improvement of a sound, comprehensive network management system.
The full text is available via social media here (Chinese only), as the Chinese Supreme Court website remains geo-blocked.
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