IPR protection in China rapid, fair, effective

Editor's note: On Dec 10, Fuzhou Intermediary People's Court, Fujian province, granted the Qualcomm's request for two preliminary injunctions against four Chinese subsidiaries of Apple Inc, ordering them to immediately cease infringing upon two Qualcomm patents through the unlicensed importation, sale and offers for sale in China of the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. Columnist Yu Pengkun, comments in a post published by Guancha.cn:

The Fuzhou court's verdict shows China's legal system and judicial mechanism's efficiency and strength in handling intellectual property rights dispute cases.

In comparison to the United States, Chinese IPR recognition is clearer. For instance, in the US, a trademark with a higher frequency in advertising can have a higher degree of saliency. Thus business success can offset, to a large extent, the IPR priority of the register of the trade mark. But Chinese law recognizes the trade mark register as the sole owner of it.

The US law is more like a result of judicial game, which usually prolongs the legal proceedings, and the Chinese one is more efficient in dealing with practical disputes.

Moreover, China's IPR system gives more consideration to the public interest while considering whether an IPR is invalid or not than the US and European systems.

China's identification criteria for intellectual property rights are clear, well-considered and persuasive. Before the court issued the injunctions, China's IPR protection authority had previously found Qualcomm's patents to be valid.

The case can be a good beginning prompting more global companies to seek legal settlement of their IPR disputes in China. China is a major global market, and it is also necessary for big companies to win China's recognition of their IPR.