BEIJING: More overseas litigants are choosing to resolve international intellectual property disputes in China, according to a recent report. This shows that foreign innovators are increasingly recognizing the legal protection for IP rights in China and are confident in its market, experts said.
According to the annual report issued by the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People’s Court, the country’s top court, at the end of last month, 457 new cases involving overseas entities were received, an increase of 4.6 percent year-on-year. The English version of the report was made available online on Tuesday.
The number of cases in which all parties are foreign entities has also been on the rise, indicating that China has progressively become one of the preferred venues for international IP litigation, the report stated.
While strictly abiding by international rules, the IP Court protects all litigants, regardless of their origin, in an effort to foster a market-oriented and law-based international business environment, it added.
“IP disputes between foreign entities heard in China are usually administrative litigation, meaning the cases where Chinese authorities in charge of IP affairs are involved,” said Kang Lixia, an IP lawyer at Beijing’s Hanray Law Firm.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
