Zhejiang: Ningbo works out 26 IPR protection measures

On April 21, Ningbo Municipal Intermediate People's Court of Zhejiang Province held a press conference on 2010 IPR Publicity Week & Review of IPR Civil Trial in Past Five Years, at which the top ten cases on IPR judicial protection were unveiled and at the same time, 26 measures on enhancing IPR protection were issued.

The related official from Ningbo Municipal Intermediate People's Court told the reporter that, the 26 measures are bettering IPR trial guidance system, building green channel for IPR trial and enforcement, regularly announcing IPR trial work, timely proposing judicial suggestions to enterprises in allusion to the leak and problems found in individual IPR case trial, assuring the linkage between administrative law enforcement and criminal and civil justice, curbing the actions infringing the exclusive rights of registered trademarks and unfair competition, well doing the determination work of well-known trademarks, accelerating the sound development of the brand economy of Ningbo, etc..

In 2009, the courts in Ningbo tried 478 IPR civil cases of first instance, of which 436 were heard by Ningbo Municipal Intermediate People's Court and 42 by grass-root courts.

Furthermore, in 2009, Ningbo Municipal Intermediate People's Court ended 455 cases including 65 IPR cases involving foreign countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the settled cases increased by 20% compared with that in 2008, with a value of 109,000,000 yuan. The 455 ended cases contained 194 patent cases, 61 trademark cases, 187 copyright cases and 13 pieces of other kind of IPR cases.

It is introduced that these cases basically covered all the cases in IPR field. Compared with 2008, patent cases decreased by 18% while copyright cases increased by 3 times. Of these ended cases, 91 were settled through mediation and 268 were revoked, the mediation and withdrawal rate reached 78.9%. During the whole year, 130 cases experienced evidence saving.