Supreme People's Court
Twice the Trouble: Unraveling a Single Case of Dual Patent and Trademark Infringement
9 January 2024Can a rights holder sue the same infringer separately based on one single infringing act that infringes both trademark and patent rights? An interesting case this year from China’s Supreme People’s Court that addresses this specific issue ((2023)最高法知民终235号). Beijing Run De Hong Tu Technology Development Co., Ltd. (“Run De Hong Tu”) sued an individual named […]
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Chinese Courts Cares More About Patent Quality Now (A Doctrine of Equivalents Story)
13 December 2022There is no doubt that the drafting quality of a patent can be crucial in determining the success (or failure!) of the patent during litigation. However, due to various reasons, patents often fail to use the right drafting strategies that best protect the invention. Too often, inexperienced or unsophisticated patent drafters merely listen to an […]
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China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) Hands Down First Patent Linkage Appeal Decision
21 September 2022China has been implementing a plethora of new laws and measures that are particularly favorable to drug companies, such as patent term extension and patent linkage. Details of the new implementation measures for patent linkage (technically “early dispute resolution mechanisms for drug patents”) came into effect on July 4, 2021. At around the same time, […]
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SPC Upholds $2M RMB Award in China’s First Patent Case on a Biological Deposit
4 July 2022On 28 Feb 2022, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued its annual “Judgment Digests”, which includes a list of “48 typical cases” highlighting representative SPC decisions in 2021. The Judgment Digests help us understand more about the SPC’s judicial ideology, trial concepts, and adjudication methods in dealing with difficult and sophisticated legal issues as well […]
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Do Invention and UM Patents Filed on the Same Day Rise and Fall Together?
19 August 2021Snippets of Court Cases, Provisions, and Key Observations about China’s IP Landscape Seminal Cases by the SPC Recently, the Intellectual Property Division of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) issued a list of seminal (精品) cases. Although China is not a case law country, such seminal cases issued by the SPC have high guiding impact for […]
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2020 China Top 10 IP Cases: Winners’ Sun is truly a Winner: A Simple Selfie-Stick Utility Model Patent Crushes Infringers in China
2 August 2021Each year The Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court releases a list of top 10 technical intellectual property rights court case decisions. The 2020 list came out a few months ago, and we have been highlighting some of these cases. Today, we will cover a utility model patent infringement case. As one of […]
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How will Civil Cases Work under the Patent Linkage Provision in the New Chinese Patent Law?
20 November 2020The Supreme People’s Court has just issued draft regulations for comment regarding how new Article 76 will work in conjunction with civil procedure law. The period to submit comments ends December 14, 2020, and the final version will come into force June 1, 2021, together with the new Chinese Patent Law. The Backdrop: New Chinese […]
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Polymorph Patents in China: What is the Standard for Inventiveness for New Crystal Forms?
14 July 2020This case is focused on polymorphs, namely what are the standards for novelty and inventiveness when it comes to new crystal forms of a known drug? A recent Supreme People’s Court decision in China is illustrative of the way Chinese courts are thinking about polymorph patents in China. Grünenthal is a German pharmaceutical company and […]
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