During the recent Fifth Session of the 11th National People’s Congress, China’s Chief Justice Wang Shengjun, president of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), delivered a report on the work of the SPC. While the report covered all aspects of the work done by the SPC over the year, there were a number of highlights related to the work the Chinese Judiciary system has done on cracking down on intellectual property rights (IPR) violations.

According to Chief Justice Wang, Chinese courts in 2011 closed a total of 66,000 lawsuits involving IPR violations – an increase of nearly 38% over the previous year. Additionally, during the Session it was noted that prosecutors had charged 6,870 suspects with IPR violations last year.

The GIPC welcomes these announcements and continues to be encouraged by the work of the SPC. We are particularly interested in the SPC’s work on a Judicial Interpretation to address online piracy and counterfeiting, which has the potential to advance the mutual interest of the protection of intellectual property (IP) online.

China is tremendously important to the business community, and while the trend on IP seems to be moving in the right direction, much work remains to be done. Thus, further improvements to China’s IP  regime are a priority for  the GIPC.  We will continue to monitor and engage with the Chinese government on various IP laws, regulations, and the progress made regarding the implementation of these programs, and to work with our Chinese counterparts to promote the protection and enforcement of IPR in China.