Foreign IP owners are involved in 50 % of administrative IP cases, and 31.5 % of all IP cases (including administrative and civil litigation and criminal enforcement cases). They win 55.2 % of the cases. Damages, in average, are low.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court is the court that handles all the trademark and patent administrative cases against the decisions made by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (trademarks) and by the Patent Review and Adjudication Board of the State Intellectual Property Office (patents).

In December 2011, the No. 1 Intermediate Court held a meeting and gave a presentation of its achievements since the year 2002.

The statistics reveal interesting information about the proportion of foreign related IP cases and the results obtained.

From 2002 until November 2011, the Court handled a total of 10,404 administrative trademark and patent cases (details for each category is not available). During the period from January 2011 until November 2011, the Court handled 2,311 trademark and patent cases. About 50 % of these cases involved a foreign party.

The Court disclosed another statistic for the period between 2002 and November 2011, concerning all categories of IP cases (administrative, civil and criminal): a total of 5,318 foreign related cases, representing 31.5 % of all IP cases.  The Court indicates that the foreign litigants won 55.2 % of these 5,318 enforcement cases and that 50 million Yuan were awarded as damages over the entire period.

Comment

The comparison between the overall figure (10 years) and the first 11 months of 2011 shows a significant increase in the number of administrative cases. Furthermore, the proportion of foreign related cases (50 %) may be compared with the very small proportion occupied by foreigners in the overall IP civil litigation (2 % as recorded during the year 2010 by the Supreme People’s Court).  It is clear that foreigners are mainly busy over the registration of their rights in China and the protection of such rights against other applicants. As to the enforcement actions (civil and criminal) conducted by foreign IP owners before the Beijing Intermediate Court No. 1, it is possible, based on the percentage provided by the Court, to calculate the number of civil and criminal cases: 6,479. The percentage of 55.2 % of successful cases concerns all cases, including administrative cases, which means that, for civil and criminal cases only, the percentage of success should be much higher. Indeed, it is a known fact that the Beijing Intermediate Court No. 1 does not overrule more than 20 % of the TRAB or PRAB decisions. The Court also indicates that it has awarded total of 50 million Yuan as financial compensation during the period starting in 2002. Assuming that civil cases are the majority, it is possible to deduct an average of 10,000 Yuan per case, which seems quite low.