I was given a slew of data on IP litigation between domestic parties and between a domestic party and a foreign party in Beijing, Guangzhou, Jiangsu and Zhejiang courts. The idea was to write a sort of companion piece to Mei Gechlik's paper on decisions by China's Patent Review Board (PRB), covered in an earlier post. My faculty advisor for my comment wisely expressed concerns over citing this data. Thus, I'm writing my comment on torts by Chinese workers in US courts. But, I might as well share the data with the rest of the world. Today, I'm just going to post the data and let readers interpret it for themselves. Later in the week, I'll post my interpretation to the data along with other's interpretations. Feel free to post in the comments, to my email, or on your own blog.
Beijing Cases
The following two tables summarize decisions collected from all 85 IP cases involving at least one foreign party published by the Beijing courts (Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, Beijing No. 2 People's Court, and Beijing High People's Court) between November 2005 and January 2007 at their website. The Administrative Cases are court reviews of PRB decisions.
Case Type
| Type of Case | Patent | Trademark |
| Civil Cases | ||
| Final Judgment | 25 (33%) | 2 (22%) |
| No Final Judgment | 16 (21%) | 3 (33%) |
| Administrative Cases | ||
| Final Judgment | 34 (45%) | 4 (44%) |
| No Final Judgment | 1 (1%) | 0 |
| Total | 76 | 9 |
Case Outcomes
| Civil Cases | |||
| Patent Holder Won | 16 (67%) | ||
| Patent Holder Lost | 8 (33%) | ||
| Subtotal | 24 | ||
| Trademark Holder Won | 2 (100%) | ||
| Trademark Holder Lost | 0 | ||
| Subtotal | 2 | ||
| Settled/Withdrawn | 10 | ||
| Ownership/Jurisdiction Disputes | 10 | ||
| Subtotal | 46 | ||
| Administrative Cases | Courts upheld PRB decisions | Courts dismissed PRB decisions | |
| Patent Valid | 9 (27%) | 8 | 1 |
| Patent Invalid | 17 (52%) | 16 | 1 |
| Patent Partially Valid | 2 (6%) | 2 | 0 |
| Remanded | 5 (15%) | 0 | 5 |
| Subtotal | 33 (100%) | 26 (79%) | 7 (21%) |
| Patent Application Rejected | 1 | ||
| Withdrawn | 1 | ||
| Trademark Registration Case | 4 | ||
| Subtotal | 39 | ||
| Total | 85 |
In the 15 patent cases that damages are reported, the average damage award was RMB 158,457 plus injunctions. The largest damage award was RMB500,000 for infringement of an invention patent. The company who won this award claimed RMB37,500,000 in damages.
The one trademark case with reported damages resulted in damages of RMB500,000 plus an injunction for infringement of the Honda trademark on a claim of RMB12,509,555.01.
Guangzhou Cases
The following two tables summarize decisions in 105 cases published by the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court in October, November and December of 2006 at the court's website. 21 of the cases involve at least one foreign party, and the rest involve only domestic parties. Guangzhou is similar to Shenzhen in business environment and IPR protection.
Case Type
| Type of Dispute | Patent | Trademark | Copyright | Trade Secret | Tech Transfer |
| W/Domestic Parties Only | |||||
| Final Judgment | 14 (35%) | 6 (43%) | 11 (42%) | 0 | 1 (50%) |
| No Final Judgment | 26 (65%) | 8 (57%) | 15 (58%) | 2 (100%) | 1 (50%) |
| Subtotal | 40 | 14 | 26 | 2 | 2 |
| W/Foreign Party | |||||
| Final Judgment | 3 (20%) | 2 (67%) | 2 (67%) | ||
| No Final Judgment | 12 (80%) | 1 (33%) | 1 (33%) | ||
| Subtotal | 15 | 3 | 3 | ||
| Total | 55 | 17 | 29 | 2 | 2 |
Case Outcomes
| W/Domestic Parties Only | W/Foreign Party | |
| Patent Holder Won | 10 (71%) | 3 (100%) |
| Patent Holder Lost | 4 (29%) | 0 |
| Subtotal | 14 | 3 |
| TM Holder Won | 3 (50%) | 1 (50%) |
| TM Holder Lost | 3 (50%) | 1 (50%) |
| Subtotal | 6 | 2 |
| Copyright Holder Won | 10 (100%) | 2 (100%) |
| Copyright Holder Lost | 0 | 0 |
| Subtotal | 10 | 2 |
| Others - Final Judgment | 2 | 0 |
| Case Settled/Withdrawn | 51 | 13 |
| Others - Non-Judgment | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 84 | 21 |
Of the 3 patent case involving at least one foreign party, the average damage award was RMB56,666 plus an injunction.
The one TM award to a foriegn party went to Puma for RMB80,000 on a claim of RMB200,000.
The average of the 3 copyright damage awards to foreing parties was 25,500 plus an injunction.
Jiangsu Courts
The following two tables summarize decisions in 382 cases published by the Jiangsu People's Courts, including Jiangsu High People's Court, Nanjing Intermediate People's Court and other intermediate people's courts in January 2005 through December 2006 at the court's website. The 333 domestic cases involving only domestic parties are all published IP cases in this time period that reached a final judgment by the courts. The 49 cases involving a foreign party include all IP cases published regardless of whether the courts issued a final judgment.
Case Type
| Type of Dispute | Patent | Trademark | Copyright | Trade Secret | Other | Total |
| Domestic Cases | ||||||
| Final Judgment | 84 (25%) | 61 (18%) | 101 (30%) | 17 (5%) | 70 (21%) | 333 |
| Foreign Cases | ||||||
| Final Judgment | 3 (15%) | 11 (55%) | 4 (20%) | 2 (10%) | 0 | 20 |
| No Final Judgment | 12 (41%) | 5 (17%) | 7 (24%) | 1 (3%) | 4 (14%) | 29 |
| Subtotal | 15 (31%) | 16 (33%) | 11 (22%) | 3 (6%) | 4 (8%) | 49 |
| Total | 99 | 77 | 112 | 20 | 74 | 382 |
Case Outcomes
| Domestic Cases | Foreign Cases | |
| Patent Holder Won | 60 (71%) | 3 (100%) |
| Patent Holder Lost | 24 (29%) | 0 |
| Subtotal | 84 | 3 |
| TM Holder Won | 49 (80%) | 8 (73%) |
| TM Holder Lost | 12 (20%) | 3 (27%) |
| Subtotal | 61 | 11 |
| Copyright Holder Won | 87 (86%) | 4 (100%) |
| Copyright Holder Lost | 14 (14%) | 0 |
| Subtotal | 101 | 4 |
| Trade Secret Holder Won | 6 (35%) | 0 |
| Trade Secret Holder Lost | 11 (65%) | 2 (100%) |
| Subtotal | 17 | 2 |
| Others - Final Judgment | 70 | 0 |
| Case Settled/Withdrawn | N/A | 29 |
| Total | 333 | 49 |
Injunctions were issued in all three of the decisions for foreign patent holders, but the damages award was reverd on appeal for one of the cases. The average damages award for other two cases was RMB275,000.
Injunctions were issued in six of the eight cases where the foreign trademark holder won, and the damages in seven of the cases averaged out to RMB74,000.
Injunctions and an average damage award of RMB88,581 was awarded in all four cases where the foreign copyright holder won.
Zhejiang Courts
The following two tables summarize decisions decisions in all 272 cases published by the Zhejiang People's Courts, including Zhejiang High People's Court, Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court and other intermediate people's courts through December 2006 at the court's website. The 213 domestic cases involving only domestic parties are all published IP cases in this time period that reached a final judgment by the courts. The 59 cases involving a foreign party include all IP cases published regardless of whether the courts issued a final judgment.
Case Type
| Type of Case | Patent | Trademark | Copyright | Trade Secret | Others | Total |
| Domestic Cases | ||||||
| Final Judgment | 107 (51%) | 37 (17%) | 43 (20%) | 6 (3%) | 20 (9%) | 213 |
| Foreign Cases | ||||||
| Final Judgment | 2 (11%) | 12 (67%) | 4 (22%) | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| No Final Judgment | 21 (51%) | 13 (32%) | 5 (12%) | 0 | 2 (5%) | 41 |
| Total | 130 | 62 | 52 | 6 | 22 | 272 |
Case Outcomes
| Domestic Cases | Foreign Cases | |
| Patent Holder Won | 92 (86%) | 1 (50%) |
| Patent Holder Lost | 15 (14%) | 1 (50%) |
| Subtotal | 107 | 2 |
| TM Holder Won | 32 (86%) | 12 (100%) |
| TM Holder Lost | 5 (14%) | 0 |
| Subtotal | 37 | 12 |
| Copyright Holder Won | 38 (88%) | 4 (100%) |
| Copyright Holder Lost | 5 (12%) | 0 |
| Subtotal | 43 | 4 |
| Trade Secret Holder Won | 1 (17%) | 0 |
| Trade Secret Holder Lost | 5 (83%) | 0 |
| Subtotal | 6 | 0 |
| Others - Final Judgment | 20 | 0 |
| Case Settled/Withdrawn | N/A | 41 |
| Total | 213 | 59 |
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