Issued by Jiangsu Provincial Court | Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights by Jiangsu Courts in 2023

In 2023, the Jiangsu court will adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping's thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, actively practice Xi Jinping's thought of rule of law, and thoroughly implement the important instructions and instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on intellectual property work and Jiangsu's work, such as "going ahead, demonstrating" and "making new breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation", with a higher position, more practical measures We will be more responsible and fully perform our judicial duties, continue to promote the strictest judicial protection, and provide strong judicial services and guarantees to accelerate the realization of self-reliance in high-level science and technology, accelerate the implementation of innovation driven development strategy, and comprehensively promote the new practice of Chinese style modernization in Jiangsu.

Adhere to the concept of "protecting intellectual property is protecting innovation", give full play to the judicial function, protect innovation rights fairly and efficiently, stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship vitality to the maximum extent, and promote economic and social development and prosperity. In 2023, eight collectives including the Intellectual Property Division of the Provincial Court and seven individuals including Liu Li and Shi Lei were respectively rated as "advanced collectives" and "advanced individuals" in the intellectual property trial of the People's Court. For four consecutive years, the Intellectual Property Division of the Provincial Court has been awarded the National Meritorious Unit in Combating Infringement and Piracy.

In 2023, courts across the province will hear 39900 intellectual property cases, up 7.78% year on year, including 39088 civil cases, 764 criminal cases and 40 administrative cases; 33855 cases were concluded, up 4.11% year on year, including 33209 civil cases, 620 criminal cases and 26 administrative cases. (See Figure 1 for details)

Chart 1: Number of intellectual property cases heard and concluded by Jiangsu courts from 2019 to 2023

A total of 34383 new intellectual property cases of first and second instance, application for retrial and retrial were received, up 14.06% year on year. 32403 new first instance cases were received, including 31890 civil cases, 485 criminal cases and 28 administrative cases; 1802 cases of second instance, 155 cases of retrial application and 23 cases of retrial were received. The case presents the following characteristics:

——Judging from the trial effect, the fair and efficient judicial protection environment was further optimized. In 2023, the number of intellectual property cases heard and concluded by courts across the province will continue to grow, with an increase of 7.78% and 4.11% respectively compared with 2022. The rate of remand for retrial and the appeal rate are both low, and the trial quality continues to improve. The appeal rate was 5.95%, down 1.41 percentage points year on year. The application retrial rate was 0.505%, up 0.01% year on year. The rate of the first instance judgment being changed was 0.414%, down 0.05% year on year; The rate of being sent back for reexamination was 0.056%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.01%. The revision rate of effective referees was 0.026%, up 0.009% year on year; The rate of being sent back for retrial is 0.007%. The closing rate of civil cases is 86.92%. The rate of closing cases within trial time was 94.17%, up 3.74% year on year. The average settlement time was 69.01 days, a year-on-year decrease of 18.31 days. The mediation withdrawal rate of civil cases in the first instance was 73.52%. The trial efficiency has developed well.

——From the perspective of case types, except for the continuous decline of franchise contract disputes, other types of cases are on the increase. Among 31890 new civil cases of first instance, 16532 were copyright disputes, up 16.49% year on year, accounting for more than 50% for two consecutive years; Among them, the number of computer software copyright infringement disputes increased sharply, from 172 in 2022 to 1424. 10282 trademark disputes, up 16.72% year on year, accounting for 32.24%, roughly the same as in 2022. There were 3038 technical disputes, accounting for 9.53%, of which 2380 were technical achievement ownership infringement disputes, up 30.67% year on year; 658 technical contract disputes, up 53.02% year on year. 1553 design patent disputes, up 49.47% year on year, continued to grow, accounting for 4.87%. There were 834 monopoly and unfair competition disputes, up 7.06% year on year. There were 739 disputes over franchise contracts, a year-on-year decrease of 20.79%, down for two consecutive years. (See Figure 2 for details)

Figure 2: Distribution of Causes of New First Instance Intellectual Property Civil Cases in 2023

485 criminal cases of intellectual property rights in the first instance were received, which rose for the first time since 2021. (See Table 3 for details) There were 440 criminal cases involving trademarks, accounting for an absolute majority of the total number of criminal cases, accounting for 90.72%, of which the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks and the crime of selling counterfeit registered trademarks were the main crimes. The number of cases of copyright infringement and trade secret infringement was relatively stable, accounting for 7.63% and 1.65% respectively. (See Figure 4 for details)

Figure 3: Number and growth rate of newly received first instance intellectual property criminal cases in 2020-2023

Figure 4: Distribution of Causes of New First Instance Intellectual Property Criminal Cases in 2023

——Judging from the distribution of trial levels, the cases further sank to the grass-roots courts. In 2023, 29985 intellectual property cases will be heard by the grass-roots courts in the province, accounting for 75.15% of the total number of intellectual property cases heard in the province, up 9.9 percentage points year on year. The task of finding out the facts, resolving disputes and promoting innovation will be more arduous for the grass-roots courts. The number of cases heard by the Intermediate People's Court and the provincial courts decreased correspondingly, accounting for 21.95% and 2.90% respectively. It is more urgent to strengthen the basic work of connecting with the grassroots, serving the grassroots and strengthening supervision and guidance.

——From the perspective of regional distribution, the cases are still concentrated in economically developed areas, and the types of cases are closely related to regional characteristic industries. Nanjing, Suzhou and other regions with a high level of economic development and a cluster of high-tech industries have ranked top in terms of the number of new intellectual property cases. Nanjing is the first comprehensive Chinese software city identified by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The number of computer software copyright infringement disputes accepted by Nanjing Intermediate People's Court is still high, accounting for 94.65% of the new first instance copyright disputes. The agglomeration of new industries, new formats and new business models in Suzhou has led to the emergence of new forms of unfair competition. Disputes over unfair competition increased by 63.09% year on year. The number of technical cases in Wuxi and Xuzhou Intermediate Court increased rapidly, with 212 and 376 new cases respectively. Influenced by the book distribution industry and liquor making industry within the jurisdiction, Suqian has many cases involving pirated book copyright and infringement of alcohol trademark rights. There is a famous lamp base Zou District Lamp City in East China in Changzhou, and disputes concerning the appearance design patents of lamps and lanterns are frequent.

——Judging from the cases with high amount of compensation, judicial protection has been strengthened. Jiangsu courts continue to promote the strictest judicial protection of intellectual property rights, strictly punish serious infringement and counterfeiting according to law, continue to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights for core technologies in key fields and original achievements with strong innovation and great contribution, and ensure that the scope and intensity of intellectual property protection is proportional to the degree of innovation contribution. In 2023, among the first instance civil intellectual property cases concluded by the provincial courts, 259 cases were awarded compensation amounts of 500000 to 3 million yuan, 21 cases were awarded compensation amounts of 3 to 5 million yuan, 29 cases were awarded compensation amounts of more than 5 million yuan, of which 16 cases were awarded compensation amounts of more than 10 million yuan, all achieving year-on-year growth. (See Table 5 for details) The absolute number of cases with high amount of compensation in the current year is obvious. In the first instance, the provincial court concluded the cases involving the infringement of "Panpan" anti-theft door trademark, the infringement of Siemens' trademark and unfair competition disputes, and the infringement of SINORGCHEM's rubber antioxidant technical secrets. The amount of compensation awarded exceeded 100 million yuan, making it the highest case of domestic trademark rights and trade secrets being infringed. Jiangsu courts continue to become the highland of judicial protection of intellectual property rights and have a wide influence in the industry.

Figure 5: Number of High Compensation Cases Settled in 2021, 2022 and 2023

Accelerating the realization of self-reliance in high-level science and technology is the only way to promote high-quality development. Jiangsu courts have constantly strengthened the legal protection of intellectual property rights, actively served and promoted the self-reliance of high-level science and technology. The Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Provincial People's Court and the Nanjing Intellectual Property Tribunal were rated by the Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Intellectual Property Office as "the collective with outstanding achievements in intellectual property protection nationwide". The provincial court held an experience exchange on "Implementing the Most Strict Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property to Help High level Science and Technology Self reliance" at the fifth national intellectual property trial working conference.

First, promote the strictest judicial protection. In addition to increasing the amount of judgment compensation and greatly increasing the cost of infringement, punitive compensation is actively applied according to law. Courts across the province have applied punitive compensation to determine the amount of compensation in 89 cases, effectively preventing serious infringement. We will crack down on chain, industrialization, and intellectual property related crimes. The Kunshan Court concluded the plug-in case of the most influential "chicken eating" game "Peace Elite" and "PUBGMOBILE", sentenced the defendant to four years' imprisonment and fined 20 million yuan. Wuxi Intermediate People's Court concluded the province's first case of cracking down on the whole chain mechanized production of counterfeit cigarette packaging, and sentenced the defendant who illegally manufactured more than 16 million registered trademark signs to a maximum of five years and nine months of imprisonment. When hearing a series of civil cases of infringement of book copyright and trademark rights, Shuyang Court transferred the criminal clues of 151 cases caused by infringement and piracy of 27 companies controlled by the same actual controller to the public security organ for investigation.

The second is to promote high-quality innovation. The provincial court issued the action plan, continued to deepen the strictest judicial protection of intellectual property rights, and made new breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation in service guarantee. Strengthen the research on legal issues of intellectual property rights in the fields of biomedicine, new energy, new materials, electronic information and other technologies, and properly hear relevant cases, further strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights of key core technologies and original innovation achievements, and judicial supervision and guidance, and support and guide enterprises such as "specialized, special and new" to improve their core competitiveness. Wuxi Intermediate People's Court issued opinions to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, serve and guarantee the development of semiconductor industry, and help speed up the creation of an internationally competitive "core" landmark. Nanjing Intermediate People's Court concluded a case involving the infringement of the technical secrets of lentinan in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. According to the damage compensation standard agreed by both parties in advance, the court awarded the infringer 20 million yuan, increased the protection of innovative technologies of traditional Chinese medicine, severely punished serious infringements, and promoted the values of honesty and trustworthiness. Suzhou Intermediate People's Court accurately defined the patent ownership and effectively protected the scientific research achievements of new materials of silicon carbide ceramics involved in the case when hearing the patent application right ownership case of a research institute. The judgment of this case was awarded the first prize for excellent judicial documents in technical intellectual property and monopoly cases by the national courts.

Third, promote the protection of trade secrets. Actively apply Article 32 of the Anti Unfair Competition Law, transfer the burden of proof in due time, reduce the difficulty for obligees to prove the composition of trade secrets and the establishment of infringement, and reduce the burden of proof and the cost of rights protection. The provincial court concluded the case of SINORGCHEM suing a company in Shanxi and other companies for infringing technical secrets, and awarded the infringer a compensation of 2015.4 million yuan, vigorously safeguarding China's world leading rubber antioxidant technology. The case was rated by the Supreme Court as one of the ten most influential cases in the five years since the establishment of the Intellectual Property Tribunal. To strengthen the criminal protection of trade secrets and actively respond to many social problems such as unclear norms, difficult investigation, long cycle, more identification chaos, and heavy burden on obligees, the provincial court, together with the provincial procuratorate and the provincial public security department, took the lead in issuing the Guidelines for Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement of Trade Secrets nationwide to unify understanding, clarify ideas, refine rules, and standardize the handling of cases, We promoted the upgrading of the criminal protection of trade secrets, with more than 100000 readers, which had a wide social impact. Taizhou Intermediate People's Court invited well-known experts and scholars to carry out special training on "management and protection of trade secrets" for more than 80 pharmaceutical enterprises to effectively enhance their protection ability. In the hearing of criminal cases involving chip manufacturing trade secrets, Suzhou Intermediate People's Court effectively prevented the second disclosure of trade secrets by permanently sealing the carrier of trade secrets and strictly controlling the scope of contacts.

Fourth, promote high-level digital justice. Properly hear cases involving the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and other fields that use technical means to maliciously interfere with competitors' network services, standardize network operations, purify the network ecology, and promote the healthy development of the digital economy. In the hearing of the GPL open source software copyright dispute case, the Suzhou Intermediate People's Court accurately grasped the binding force of the open source license agreement, reasonably defined the right boundary between the open source code obligee and the software secondary developer, made it clear that new achievements developed on the basis of open source code should be protected, and gave software developers a "reassurance", which is a milestone in the development of open source software in China. Nanjing Intermediate People's Court, in the judgment of Dunjun Company v. Flying Star Company and other invention patent infringement disputes, clarified the determination of patent protection scope and infringement judgment rules for invention patents involving complex communication methods, and made a useful supplement to the guiding cases of related cases of the Supreme Court. To strengthen the construction of judicial cooperation mechanism for data related intellectual property protection and law enforcement, the provincial court and the provincial intellectual property office signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on Strengthening Data Intellectual Property Cooperative Protection, formulated the Administrative Measures for Data Intellectual Property Registration (Trial), and promoted the standardized development of data intellectual property registration, transaction, application and other industries in our province. The Suzhou Industrial Park Court formulated work measures to serve and ensure the integrated development of industrial innovation clusters in the digital economy era, and improve social digital governance capabilities.

Fifth, promote rural revitalization. We will increase the protection of major agricultural scientific and technological achievements and severely punish violations of intellectual property rights related to the seed industry. Nanjing Intermediate People's Court released the second batch of typical cases of protection of new plant variety rights, concluded the case of infringement of "Aotiannuo 75" corn variety rights, and decided that although the infringer pleaded to sell the seeds produced by others but could not prove the source of the seeds, he should bear legal responsibility independently, which is of positive significance for combating illegal packaging and concealing infringement, and promoting standardized market operation, This case was selected into the fourth batch of typical cases of the Supreme Court for the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry. The judicial protection status of new plant varieties in the Institute was included in the Blue Book of Rule of Law · China Local Rule of Law Development Report No. 8 (2022). Zhenjiang, Huai'an Intermediate People's Court, Yancheng Sheyang Court, Taizhou High tech Zone Court carried out special research, introduced relevant work measures, and established a judicial and administrative cooperative protection mechanism for geographical indication intellectual property rights with the Procuratorate, the Market Supervision Administration, etc. to enable rural revitalization.

Adhere to the concept of "rule of law is the best business environment", actively provide all-round behavior regulation and continuous strong legal protection of intellectual property rights for market subjects, fully protect the competitive rights and interests of market subjects, effectively serve the construction of a unified national market and integrity system, and strive to create a market-oriented, legal, international and first-class business environment.

First, stop market counterfeiting and confusion. The provincial court for the first time released typical cases of administrative litigation in the construction of a unified national market for service security, supervised and standardized intellectual property administrative law enforcement according to law, actively supported and promoted administrative protection, and maintained a good market competition order. We will crack down on malicious counterfeiting, confusion and other acts of trademark infringement and unfair competition, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, and help build a legal environment for fair competition. The provincial court concluded the case involving the infringement of the trademark of "Panpan" anti-theft door. For the defendant's behavior of deliberately imitating the well-known trademark of Panpan Company in many fields and in all directions, which is abominable and profitable, four times of punitive damages were applied in accordance with the law, and the compensation was 100 million yuan, which is the highest amount of punitive damages in China. The case of "Wusu" trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute of Xinjiang Wusu Beer Company was concluded, and the judgment found that the perpetrator's use of malicious registered trademark "Niaosu Beer" and other acts constituted infringement, and ordered it to stop using and fully support the claim for compensation. The handling of the case enhanced the obligee's confidence in intellectual property protection and investment management, created an honest and trustworthy market environment, and was fully affirmed by the Supreme Court. Concluded the first case of unfair competition against dilution and protection of geographical indications of French "Cognac" wine in China, accurately determined the rule boundary of competition behavior using international famous geographical indications, and resolutely stopped the unfair competition behavior of dilution of international famous geographical indications in violation of the principle of good faith and business ethics. The case was rated as a typical case of the French United Manufacturers Association in 2023, one of China's top ten intellectual property adjudication cases with the most research value, etc.

The second is to strengthen equal protection. Fully respect the substantive and litigation rights and interests of foreign obligees, and equally protect the intellectual property rights of Chinese and foreign parties. Ripon Wagott and other foreign obligees have sent letters to express their thanks, praising the courts of our province for strengthening the judicial protection of intellectual property rights, and vigorously promoting the formation of a market-oriented, legal, international and first-class business environment. The provincial court concluded a case involving trademark infringement and unfair competition disputes of Siemens, fully supported the obligee's claim for compensation for a loss of 100 million yuan and a reasonable right protection fee of more than 160000 yuan, and the case was rated as "Top 10 Typical Anti monopoly and Anti unfair Competition Cases of the People's Court in 2023". Huai'an Intermediate People's Court concluded the case of 43 people, including Mr. Li, selling sports shoes with counterfeit well-known trademarks, and sentenced the defendant to a real punishment and a fine of more than 56 million yuan. The case was selected into the annual top ten cases of the China High Quality Brand Protection Working Committee.

Third, promote the construction of integrity system. The provincial court carried out a survey on "improving the credit management mechanism and promoting the construction of integrity in Jiangsu" to study the feasibility and specific working mechanisms and measures to promote the inclusion of serious violations of intellectual property rights into the credit supervision objects. Yancheng Intermediate People's Court, together with the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, explored the construction of a joint punishment mechanism for serious infringement and dishonesty, and sent the judicial proposal of "including criminal defendants who infringe intellectual property rights in the list of serious violations and dishonesty for credit punishment", which was positively responded to and implemented. Suzhou Intermediate People's Court concluded the case of unfair competition disputes filed by Suzhou Shikang Protective Products Co., Ltd., severely punished the unfair competition behaviors of malicious rush registration and hoarding of trademarks, and abuse of intellectual property rights to block the real obligees in an all-round way, and firmly defended the spirit of "law cannot give way to lawlessness". Lingge, a national specialized and special new "little giant" enterprise, was forced to suspend its listing in the critical period of listing on the Beijing Stock Exchange when it encountered malicious lawsuits from its peers. Wuxi Intermediate People's Court supported Lingge's counterclaim request in accordance with the law, ordered the other party to publish a statement, eliminate the impact and compensate for losses, and helped the company complete its listing on schedule. In the case where Huang sued an enterprise for infringement of design patent, the provincial court said no to the plaintiff's trap of inducing innocent defendants to provide infringing products, which is of educational significance for guiding obligees to safeguard their rights in good faith through legal due process.

We will continue to improve the judicial protection system and mechanism, strengthen the linkage between the top and bottom, and the coordination between the left and the right, and strive to improve the overall effectiveness of protection, so as to form a judicial protection pattern that combines judicial fairness with the initiative and efficiency of responding to the judicial needs of the economy and society.

First, optimize the judicial trial system and mechanism. To further optimize the jurisdiction system, Suzhou Internet Court was established with the approval of the Supreme Court to centrally administer specific types of cases involving Internet intellectual property rights in Suzhou. The provincial court further promoted the separation of complex and simple intellectual property cases, issued guidelines on the application of small claims procedures to intellectual property civil cases, and responded efficiently and conveniently to the demand for timely relief and incentive innovation after rights were infringed. Courts across the province applied small claims procedures in 2883 intellectual property cases, greatly shortening the trial cycle. The provincial courts have established a working mechanism for promoting jurisdiction and supervision and management guidance of major cases, and the provincial courts have promoted jurisdiction to hear 726 cases.

The second is to continuously improve the technical fact finding mechanism. Deeply promote the construction of multiple technical fact finding mechanisms, such as expert witness, technical consultation, technical appraisal, and participation of technical investigators. The provincial court technical investigators assisted in hearing 691 cases. Nanjing Intermediate People's Court updated and enriched the technical consulting expert database to expand the coverage of professional fields. Suzhou Intermediate People's Court carried out the theme activity of "National Science and Technology Worker Day", released for the first time typical cases and excellent technical advisory opinions of technical investigators assisting judicial trials, and introduced 30 technical experts as jurors to participate in the trial of 581 cases, providing Suzhou samples for the trial of technical cases. Wuxi Intermediate People's Court innovated the operation mode of "4+N" technical investigators, cooperated with the Patent Examination Cooperation Center of the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, and hired 4 relatively fixed technical investigators, and 42 technical consulting experts from state organs, industry associations, scientific research institutions and other institutions as auxiliary forces. The technical investigation officer assisted the judge in evidence preservation, on-site inspection, hearing and providing advisory opinions in 39 cases. Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court adopted the "1+20+N" model, employing 21 relatively fixed technical investigators involved in machinery, electricity, appearance design and other fields to participate in the technical fact finding work, and selecting 5 professionals as jurors. Taizhou Intermediate People's Court signed a memorandum with the Municipal Intellectual Property Protection Center to actively introduce technical investigators to participate in the case hearing.

Third, improve the diversified dispute resolution mechanism. We continued to promote the judicial confirmation of administrative mediation agreements for intellectual property civil disputes, and confirmed 63 administrative mediation agreements in total. Yancheng Intermediate People's Court, together with Yancheng Intellectual Property Office, explored intellectual property diversification to understand the "Yancheng model", and formed an online litigation and mediation docking work model of "people's courts push, administrative organs coordinate, specially invited mediators receive orders, and post judges track and guide". 131 cases were successfully mediated, and the Office of the State Intellectual Property Office The General Office of the Supreme Court selected the first batch of typical cases of diversified mediation of intellectual property disputes. Changzhou Intermediate People's Court signed the Cooperation Agreement on Intensive Settlement of Intellectual Property Dispute Mediation and Adjudication with the Market Supervision Administration and the Science and Education City Management Committee, forming a large mediation work pattern of people's mediation, administrative mediation, industrial professional mediation, and judicial mediation with complementary advantages, organic connection, coordination and linkage. Huai'an Intermediate People's Court and the Municipal Intellectual Property Office jointly built an intellectual property dispute litigation and mediation docking center, and specially invited mediators to settle in the "one code dispute resolution" intelligent platform, forming an online and offline dispute resolution pattern.

Fourth, deepen the regional judicial cooperation mechanism. The provincial court issued the Opinions on Strengthening Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights and Promoting the Construction of an International First class Business Environment in the Yangtze River Delta, solidly promoting judicial protection cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta region, and promoting the Yangtze River Delta region to take the lead in building a market-oriented, legal, and international first-class business environment. The Nanjing Intermediate People's Court issued the working rules of the Nanjing Metropolitan Area Court for the cross regional filing of intellectual property disputes and the methods for entrusted investigation and preservation matters, compiled and distributed the special issue of the Alliance, and published typical cases. Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court, together with the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, has established a working pattern of intellectual property administrative and judicial coordination and great protection in the Huaihai Economic Zone, jointly released the list of key trademark protection in the ten cities of the region and the list of technical investigators for patent infringement determination, cooperated in protecting key trademarks and sharing technical investigators, and promoted the full chain protection and integrated development of regional intellectual property rights. Suzhou Intermediate People's Court signed the Framework Agreement on Deepening Judicial Cooperation Service and Safeguarding Scientific Innovation Ecological Construction with the relevant courts in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui of the G60 Scientific Innovation Corridor to promote regional "integration" and "high-quality" development. Wuxi Intermediate People's Court took the lead in establishing the Taihu Bay Intellectual Property Institute Protection Alliance to optimize the protection pattern and working mechanism.

We will continue to strengthen the professionalization, professionalization and modernization of the intellectual property trial team, constantly improve the judicial capacity, strive to promote high-quality justice with high-quality teams, and serve high-quality development.

First, implement the high-quality product strategy. Continue to strengthen the awareness of high-quality products, and the "high-quality case cultivation mechanism" of the Intellectual Property Division of the Provincial Court was rated as one of the top ten innovative mechanisms for trial management of Jiangsu courts in 2022. Twelve cases of Jiangsu courts were selected into the Supreme Court Gazette, the top ten intellectual property cases of Chinese courts, and 50 typical intellectual property cases. Four judicial documents were rated as "one hundred excellent judicial documents" by national courts, and excellent judicial documents for technical intellectual property and monopoly cases by national courts. The number of selected cases and evaluated documents ranked first in the country.

The second is to clarify the rules of adjudication. Actively explore the scope of patent protection and infringement judgment related to communication methods, civil and criminal cross protection of trade secrets, copyright ownership of secondary development works based on open source software, infringement identification and liability determination, identification of unfair competition in commercial large-scale games, identification of malicious litigation A series of judicial rules, such as the application of punitive damages and the fine determination of the amount of damages. In the case of VMI Netherlands v. Samak, the provincial court held that the inventor had higher cognitive ability than ordinary technicians in the field, and that bringing patent infringement or administrative complaints against others without a legitimate and legitimate right basis for the patents involved constituted malicious litigation and malicious protection of rights. In the case of Mr. Huang suing an enterprise for patent infringement of design, the judgment made it clear that the evidence obtained by the obligee from the fact that the defendant did not operate the infringing product but was induced by the obligee to purchase the infringing product and sell it to the obligee is invalid. In the case of Du Liniang's artistic image being infringed, the Suzhou Intermediate People's Court explored and determined the nature of the works of performing image in public space and the protective conditions for works that have entered the public domain.

Third, organize training seminars. Adhere to the problem orientation, innovate the training method, and organize nearly 300 judges and assistant judges of all courts in the province to participate in the training, achieving good training results. The second "Zhifeng Forum" on intellectual property rights of Jiangsu judges was organized to carry out discussions and exchanges around the "Research on Infringement of Information Network Communication Rights and Related Issues". Zhenjiang Intermediate People's Court, together with the Market Supervision Administration and the Public Security Bureau, held the ninth seminar on difficult intellectual property cases to promote the unification of law enforcement and judicial standards. To further deepen international exchanges and cooperation on intellectual property, Suzhou Intermediate People's Court hosted the China EU Intellectual Property Judicial Forum, and Jiangsu Court appointed judges to make speeches on the determination of patent equivalent infringement and damage compensation.

Fourth, strengthen supervision and guidance. Adhere to the system of "one case, one table" for second instance cases, keep records of problems reflected in cases that have not been changed, and report to the court of first instance in a timely manner. Carry out special evaluation and trial operation situation analysis of intellectual property rights development and reform cases, issue analysis reports, and give comments in provincial line training classes. Carry out special evaluation on cases related to the right of information network communication and Internet unfair competition, and form evaluation reports. Provincial courts have established a system of grassroots contact points for intellectual property adjudication. Judges of provincial and municipal courts have gone deep into the grassroots, entered enterprises, carried out research based on actual conditions, and strengthened face-to-face guidance.

Fifth, carry out investigation and research. The provincial court strengthened special research to further promote the modernization of the concept, system and capacity of intellectual property judicial work; Complete the major theoretical and practical topics of intellectual property rights of the People's Court, and form the research report of "Research on Judicial Protection Rules of Network Copyright"; Jointly with Nanjing and Suzhou Intellectual Property Courts, we carried out a special research on Research on Intellectual Property Legal Issues in Computer Software Cases, and the results were awarded the first prize in the forum of the Supreme Court on "Promoting the Integration of the Yangtze River Delta and Developing Judicial Theory and Practice", which was published in People's Justice. Lianyungang Intermediate People's Hospital carried out special research on the protection of intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine.

Adhere to the active performance of duties, strengthen the concept of joint construction, joint governance and sharing of intellectual property governance, build a pattern of great protection and collaborative protection of intellectual property, and promote Jiangsu to "achieve new improvement in promoting the modernization of social governance".

First, strengthen the publicity of the rule of law. For 19 consecutive years, the Provincial Court has released the blue book of the Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights of Jiangsu Courts, the Annual Report of Intellectual Property Cases of Jiangsu Courts and ten typical cases, and for four consecutive years, the Chinese and English versions have been released simultaneously. The trial involving Tencent game practice cases was broadcast live in the open, which attracted more than 30 million netizens' attention. The collegial panel went into the television studio to deeply interpret the referee's ideas, and opened a lively legal education class. The People's Daily, People's Court Daily, Rule of Law Daily and other national media published more than 60 special reports on the judicial protection of intellectual property in Jiangsu. Actively operate the official WeChat official account "Jiangsu Intellectual Property Vision", and timely push the judicial policies, typical cases and work information of intellectual property protection to the society. Suzhou Intermediate People's Court released the promotional video series of "The Best Time in Jiangnan - Traditional Culture", which was reproduced by the official micro blog of the Supreme Court and the official micro blog of the People's Court. Yancheng Intermediate People's Court produced and released the micro animation of Geographical Indications on the Tongue, which vividly tells the legal knowledge of geographical indications. Zhenjiang Intermediate People's Court shot and released the micro film "Perfect Consideration" for popularizing the law, which was reprinted on multiple platforms such as the client of People's Daily and learning power.

The second is to promote traditional culture. The provincial court organized and carried out research on the protection of intellectual property rights of traditional culture, held the annual meeting of the Intellectual Property Law Research Association of the Provincial Law Society with the theme of "the integration and development of excellent traditional Chinese culture and intellectual property cause", discussed the establishment of a working mechanism, and integrated the values of benevolence, integrity, people orientation, justice, and harmony in the excellent traditional Chinese culture into the creation, application, protection Manage and serve all links to promote high-quality development of intellectual property cause. The provincial court specially released typical cases involving the protection of intellectual property rights of Chinese medicine. Taizhou Intermediate People's Court set up intellectual property protection workstations in some key Chinese medicine enterprises to promote the protection, inheritance, innovation and development of Chinese medicine technology. Nanjing Intermediate People's Court issued 15 work measures to give full play to the function of intellectual property trial and promote the inheritance and development of excellent traditional culture. Nantong Tongzhou Bay Court signed a joint protection cooperation agreement with the provincial time-honored brand enterprise association and some time-honored brands in the city to enable the protection and innovative development of time-honored brands. The Suzhou Intermediate People's Court concluded a case involving the infringement of the artistic image of Du Liniang, a well-known Kunqu opera character, and took the lead in exploring the idea of judging the dynamic performance image in public space performance as a work of art protection, so as to effectively safeguard the copyright of original works integrating Kunqu opera, stilts, marionettes and other elements.

Third, put forward judicial suggestions. Adhering to the principle of attaching equal importance to trial and governance, and further promoting source governance, the courts of the province sent 25 judicial suggestions on intellectual property work to relevant departments, industry associations, etc., of which 3 were rated as the annual outstanding judicial suggestions of the courts of the province. After hearing and concluding several cases involving computer software copyright infringement of listed companies, Wuxi Intermediate People's Court studied and summarized the commonalities of infringement behaviors, timely issued judicial suggestions to the local association of listed companies, and helped improve the awareness and ability of listed companies to protect intellectual property rights. The Suzhou Intermediate People's Court sent a judicial proposal to a research institute to establish and improve the relevant personnel's event reporting system and the related patent dynamic monitoring and early warning mechanism. After receiving it, the research institute attached great importance to it, studied it in a timely manner, and replied to feedback. Taizhou Intermediate People's Court found loopholes in ICP record management in the case hearing and issued judicial suggestions to the Provincial Communications Administration on strengthening ICP record management. Lianyungang Lianyun District Court put forward judicial suggestions to the Municipal Education Bureau to promote the optimization and improvement of its work in the trial of a dispute case of a primary school accused of infringing the right of information network communication.

Fourth, promote enterprise compliance. In a case of unfair competition involving the LNG sampling and analysis system, the provincial court successfully facilitated a package settlement between the two parties, withdrew all cases from the country for prosecution and carried out cooperation and standardized operation to achieve the good effect of "handling one case and governing one area". Carry out research on "entering rural areas, communities and enterprises", visit high-tech enterprises regularly, understand their demands for intellectual property protection and improve their protection ability through research forums, issuing judicial suggestions, special training courses and other ways. Suqian Intermediate People's Court carried out a series of high-quality development activities of intellectual property judicial protection for three months to improve the intellectual property awareness of liquor enterprises and standardize the operation of liquor industry. Shuyang Court promoted the implementation of the "red and black list" system of honest operation in the book market under its jurisdiction, notified the copyright management department, the book association and the managers of the big market of the dishonest operation and infringement of the book operators, and urged the operators to exercise self-discipline and autonomy. Yancheng Dafeng District Court established intellectual property protection contact points in key enterprises to promote compliance reform and healthy development of sci-tech innovation enterprises. The Taizhou Intermediate People's Court, together with the Procuratorate, the Public Security Bureau, the Judicial Bureau, the Market Supervision Administration and other units, paid a return visit to help and educate the probation personnel to help them correct and supervise.

2024 is the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and also a key year to achieve the goals and tasks of the "14th Five Year Plan". Jiangsu courts will deepen the guidance of conceptual change, grasp the main line of improving quality and efficiency, promote quality and energy to improve security, and more deeply grasp the laws and characteristics of intellectual property cases that are political, professional, innovative and international, We will make greater efforts to ensure service and accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, high-quality development, and high-level science and technology for self-reliance.