The Supreme People's Court issued the annual report of the Intellectual Property Tribunal (2022). The report shows that in 2022, the court accepted a total of 6183 IPR cases involving technologies and monopoly appeals (including 4405 new cases and 1778 old cases), and concluded 3468 cases, with a settlement to income ratio of 78.7%. Compared to 2021, the number of cases has increased by 18%. Since its establishment on January 1, 2019, the court has accepted a total of 13863 technology related IPR and monopoly cases, and concluded 11148 cases, with an overall closure rate of 80.4%.
In 2022, among the cases accepted by the Supreme Law Intellectual Property Court, infringement cases will continue to grow. 2956 new civil second instance substantive cases were received, a year-on-year increase of 15.1%; Among them, there were 615 cases of invention patent infringement and 968 cases of utility model infringement, accounting for 53.5% of civil cases, marking an increase of 14.5% over that of 2021. There were 78 cases of infringement of technical secrets, 144 cases of infringement of new plant varieties, 648 cases of infringement of computer software, 96 cases of disputes over technical intellectual property contracts, and 6 cases of infringement of integrated circuit layout design.
In 2022, the IPR tribunal of the Supreme Court accepted 887 administrative cases of second instance, and the number of cases received decreased by 403 on a year-on-year basis. Among them, 793 new cases of patent grant and confirmation were received, accounting for 89.4% of all administrative cases of second instance. Among the patent grant and confirmation cases, 241 invention patent applications were rejected for reexamination, marking a year-on-year decrease of 47.3%; 234 administrative cases of invalidation of invention patent rights, marking a year-on-year decrease of 17.3%; 27 utility model patent applications were rejected for reexamination, 207 utility model patent rights were invalidated, 84 design patent rights were invalidated, and 2 integrated circuit layout design administrative disputes were rejected. This is the first time the court has accepted integrated circuit layout design administrative disputes.
In 2022, there were 1338 new cases involving strategic emerging industries, accounting for 30.4% of all new cases, marking an increase of 3.5 % compared to that of 2021. There has been a significant increase in cases involving new industries and fields such as next-generation information technology, biopharmaceuticals, high-end equipment manufacturing, and standard essential patents.
In 2022, there were 457 new cases involving foreign affairs and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, accounting for 10.4% of the new cases, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%. Among them, foreign-related cases account for 9%, and cases involving foreign subjects account for about 4% of all foreign-related cases in the court. China is increasingly becoming one of the preferred destinations for international intellectual property litigation.
In 2022, each judge received 142.5 cases (including new and old cases), an increase of 16 cases year-on-year, and 79.9 cases were closed, a decrease of 3.6% year-on-year. The average acceptance period for all types of closed cases is 165.2 natural days. Among them, there are 28.6 natural days for jurisdictional cases, 179 natural days for civil second instance substantive cases, and 215 natural days for administrative second instance cases.
The tribunal effectively strengthened the legal protection of intellectual property rights and fair competition, and strived to create a market-oriented, legal, and first-class international business environment. It adhered to the theme of promoting high-quality development, properly handle cases involving high-tech and digital industries such as seed industry, medicine, chips, communication, etc., increased protection efforts, and effectively stimulated high-level technological innovation. The court thoroughly implemented the Anti-monopoly Law and the Anti-unfair competition Law, comprehensively strengthened the anti-monopoly trial work, continuously increased the judicial protection of technical secrets, and effectively maintained the fair competition order in the market.
