(Note: The charts and illustrations in the article are all from the White Paper on the Ten Year Trial Work of Beijing Intellectual Property Court)

Recently, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court released trial data for the ten years from November 2014 to October 2024. Over the past decade, the court has accepted a total of 201,984 cases and concluded 195,506 cases, with steady progress in case handling and continuous improvement in trial quality and efficiency.

I. In Terms of the Distribution of Case Types
Administrative and civil cases constitute the core of the trial work of Beijing Intellectual Property Court. Over the past decade, 149,486 administrative cases have been accepted, accounting for 74.01% of the total, with an average annual growth rate of 14.85%. 144,186 cases were concluded, accounting for 73.75% of the total, with an average annual growth rate of 25.62%. During the same period, 524,98 civil cases were accepted, accounting for 25.99% of the total, with an average annual growth rate of 11.64%. 51,320 cases were concluded, accounting for 26.25% of the total, with an average annual growth rate of 20.36%.

II. In Terms of Trial level structure
The first instance cases dominate, while the second instance cases focus on rights remedies. Over the past decade, the court has accepted 164,871 first instance cases, accounting for 81.63% of the total number of cases accepted. Among them, there were 149,440 administrative first instance cases, accounting for 90.64% of the first instance cases accepted, and 15,431 civil first instance cases, accounting for 9.36%. 158,999 first instance cases were concluded, accounting for 81.33% of the total number of cases concluded. Among them, 144,146 administrative first instance cases and 14,853 civil first instance cases were concluded, accounting for 90.66% and 9.34% respectively.

36,677 second instance cases (including jurisdictional cases) were accepted, accounting for 18.16% of the total. Among them, only 20 administrative second instance cases were accepted, accounting for 0.05%, and 36,657 civil second instance cases were accepted, accounting for 99.95% of the total number of second instance cases accepted. The second instance procedure has become an important path for civil intellectual property rights relief. 36,084 second instance cases (including jurisdictional cases) were concluded, accounting for 18.46% of the total number of cases concluded. Among them, 19 administrative second instance cases were concluded, and 36,065 civil second instance cases were concluded, accounting for 0.05% and 99.95% respectively. Special procedures, state compensation and other cases account for less than 1%, and the allocation of trial resources is more concentrated.

III. In Terms of Types of Intellectual Property Right
Trademark, patent, copyright, and competition cases constitute the main case group. The number of trademark cases ranks first, with 137,435 cases accepted in the past decade, accounting for 68.04% of the total number of cases received, with an average annual growth rate of 16.27%. There were 134,650 first instance cases and 2,756 second instance cases, with 132,820 cases concluded, accounting for 67.94% of the total, marking an average annual growth rate of 25.43%. 130,155 cases were concluded in the first instance, and 2,638 cases were concluded in the second instance.

A total of 21,976 patent cases were accepted, accounting for 10.88%, with an average annual growth rate of 5.24%. There were 21,942 first instance cases, accounting for 99.85%, and 28 second instance cases, mainly concentrated in the field of authorization and property rights confirmation. 20,874 patent cases were concluded, accounting for 10.68% of the total number of concluded cases, with an average annual growth rate of 22.80%. Among them, the first instance conclusion rate was also as high as 99.85%, with 20,843 cases, and the second instance conclusion rate was 25 cases, accounting for 0.12% of the total number of such cases concluded.

37,139 copyright cases were accepted (36,696 cases were concluded), accounting for 18.39%, with an average annual growth rate of 13.20%, including 7,101 first instance cases and 29,880 second instance cases.

3,767 cases related to competition (including anti unfair competition, anti-monopoly, etc.) were accepted (3,503 cases were concluded), accounting for 1.86%, with an average annual growth rate of 10.48%. 627 first instance cases were accepted (562 cases were concluded), and 3130 second instance cases were concluded (2,933 cases were concluded). The completion rates of first and second instance cases were 16.04% and 83.73%, respectively, reflecting the complexity of market competition behavior and the professional demand for rights remedies.

IV. Analysis by Detailed Cause of Action
Intellectual property authorization and confirmation cases have become the core of administrative trials. In patent cases, administrative cases of authorization and confirmation account for 65.99%, including 7,822 invention patents (3,615 rejected reexamination cases and 4207 invalid declaration cases), with 7,431 concluded; 4,408 utility model patents (410 rejected reexamination cases and 3,998 invalid declaration cases) with 4,129 concluded; 2,273 design patents (43 rejected reexamination cases, 2,230 invalid declaration cases), with 2,153 concluded; mainly focusing on procedural disputes such as rejected reexamination and invalidation declaration.

In trademark cases, there were 132,989 administrative cases of authorization and confirmation (128,600 cases were concluded), accounting for 96.77% of the total, covering 79,712 cases of rejection of review (77,651 cases were concluded), 3,354 cases of objection/non registration review (3,210 cases were concluded), 35,159 cases of invalidation declaration (33,488 cases were concluded), and 14,764 cases of cancellation of review (14,251 cases were concluded). Among the trademark administrative cases concluded, 29117 cases were revoked of the sued administrative ruling. 3,117 trademark civil cases (2,951 concluded) account for 2.22% of the total number of trademark cases concluded.

Among copyright cases, 5,891 cases (5,651 concluded) were related to computer software copyright, and 31,248 cases (31,045 concluded) were related to other copyright, accounting for 84.14% and 15.86% respectively. The types of cases are highly consistent with the development trend of the digital economy.

From the distribution of patent cases received, cases involving new generation information technology account for 7.7%, high-end equipment manufacturing industry 5.6%, digital creative industry 3.9%, energy conservation and environmental protection industry 2.5%, new material cases 2.4%, new energy 2.0%, and biotechnology industry 1.9%. In addition, over the past decade, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court has tried a total of 36,201 foreign-related intellectual property cases, accounting for 17.92%, with parties covering more than 100 countries and regions on five continents around the world.

A decade of data not only record the solid practice of judicial work, but also demonstrate the importance of judicial protection in fostering innovation and improving the business environment.