By Xu Jing, Zhang Chao King & Wood Mallesons’ IP group

The Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (“SPP”) released 6 drafts of IP-related Judicial Interpretations for public comments, to meet the legislative requirements on IP protection raised in the Economic and Trade Agreement (First Phase) between the Chinese and the US governments, and to implement the annual legislative tasks planned by the SPC and the SPP, which was announced in the Proceeding Plan of 2020 for Deeply Implementing the National IP Strategy and Accelerating to Build an IP Powerful Country.

We gathered the above-mentioned drafts of Judicial Interpretations, deadlines and emails for submitting comments as below for reference.

Titles of drafts Links Deadline for comments Emails for submitting comments
1 The Draft Interpretation of the SPC on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Cases regarding Disputes on Infringement of Trade Secrets http://www.court.gov.cn/zixun-xiangqing-235071.html July 27, 2020 spcip2020@163.com
2 The Draft Reply of the SPC Concerning the Application of Law Relevant to Disputes on Network-involved Intellectual Property Infringement
3 The Draft Guiding Opinions of the SPC Concerning the Trial of Cases regarding Disputes on Intellectually Property Involving Electronic Commerce Platforms
4 The Draft Several Provisions of the SPC on Evidence in Civil Procedures of Intellectual Property Cases http://www.court.gov.cn/zixun-xiangqing-236421.html July 31, 2020 spcip611@163.com
5 The Draft Opinions of the SPC on Increasing the Strength of Enforcement against Intellectual Property Infringement
6 The Draft Interpretation III of the SPC and the SPP on Several Issues concerning the Specific Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Intellectual Property Infringement http://www.court.gov.cn/zixun-xiangqing-236841.html August 2, 2020 xssfjs@163.com

The announcement of the above six drafts of Judicial Interpretations in such a concentrated period raises hot discussions among the public. Furthermore, most of the drafts reflect the trends of enhancing IP protection. For example, the Draft Opinions of the SPC on Increasing the Strength of Enforcement against Intellectual Property Infringement indicate at the very beginning to enhance the enforcement against IP infringement. It can be expected that the formal announcement of the above Judicial Interpretations will further optimize and improve the IP protection environment in the Chinese market in the future.

King & Wood Mallesons will continue to pay attention to legislative trends and is in progress of organizing comments for the above drafts of Judicial Interpretations. Should you have any comments or suggestions regarding the above drafts, please feel free to contact our email: xujing@cn.kwm.com;zhangchao@cn.kwm.com.