The court, which has two trial teams and has seen the number of IP cases, especially music-related copyright cases, soaring in the past three years, is mulling whether to build a technique investigation team to help solve disputes more effectively.
“To provide a professional service, we have invited Hong Kong professionals as people’s assessors to join the trials,” said Lin. “To deal with cases that are related with Internet IP products and new technologies, we plan to appoint technical investigators to assist the judging team.”
According to Lin, as more high-tech companies have settled in Qianhai, forming a professional team of technical investigators has become an urgent need.
“In recent years, the number of cases that involve advanced technology have increased. The investigators have played a key role in offering us suggestions in checking the technical facts of some cases. For instance, we successfully dealt with an IP dispute related to an AI-generate product with help from technical investigators,” Lin added.
To avoid wasting time and low efficiency in judicial proceedings, the court has rolled out a series of measures, such as separating complicated cases from simple ones. To date, about 85 percent of IP cases have been dealt with through the fast-trial track. It also issues pre-filing injunctions to stop infringement in an effective manner.
“In one classic case where the Tencent Music Entertainment Group sued the Netease Cloud Co., we took the measure of a pre-filing injunction to forbid Netease Cloud from offering nine case-related songs to users, which efficiently protected the rights of the plaintiff,” said Lin.
“We have closely cooperated with alternative dispute resolution institutions, such as intellectual property arbitration centers and professional mediators. To offer more options to clients, we will recommend that they seek mediation help before filing a law suit,” said Lin. “Online mediation services are accessible for those in need. In one copyright case, the dispute was resolved with the help of online mediators from the mainland and overseas.”
The court has first-instance jurisdiction over IP cases in the Qianhai & Shekou free trade area. In the past three years, it has heard about 2,600 IP cases.
It claims to carry out the strictest IP rights protection and implement measures to promote the professionalization, convenience and diversification of judicial IP rights protection, in order to implement the innovation-driven development strategy.
It aims to provide rights holders with protection reflecting the full value of IP rights. It has been exploring punitive damages systems for infringement cases in order to fully compensate the rights holders and strictly punish defendants that acted with malice to deter future infringement.
Under the guideline on supporting Shenzhen in building a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the court will strive to help build a better business environment in Qianhai.
