Court raises IPR awareness

The Guangdong High People’s Court on April 17 published 10 major court cases involving infringement of intellectual property rights in 2012, aiming to raise local companies’ poor awareness in protecting IPRs.

The major IPR-related cases the court handled last year raised broader concerns from home and abroad and involved large amounts of compensation, according to a press release from the court.

IPR infringement cases that came under close public scrutiny in 2012 included the iPad trademark dispute between US tech giant Apple Inc and Shenzhen Proview in February last year.

The Guangdong High People’s Court broadcast live updates on the case, which attracted a great deal of attention at home and abroad.

Apple eventually agreed to pay $60 million to Proview in a court-mediated settlement last July.

Courts in the southern province which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions have seen the number of such cases they handle rise by an average of 5.2 percent a year over the past three years.

Feng Xiaoqing, a law professor specializing in intellectual property rights with China University of Political Science and Law, spoke highly of the disclosure of the 10 typical cases, saying advanced technology is a key cause of the increasing number of e-commerce infringements.

He said many companies prefer to develop e-commerce platforms, which also brings disputes.

“Such disputes relate a lot to local economic development,” he told China Daily on April 18.

The Pearl River Delta region has many new industries, including network and telecom enterprises, which is another reason that e-commerce violations happen there.

“Such cases will become more prevalent as more companies step up their efforts to protect their IPRs,” Feng said.

He urged government departments and companies to pay more attention to cracking down on IPR infringement in the following months.