[Lvxinnews] Technical Investigators Helped Judges Much in Handling Intellectual Property Cases April 11, 2018 Lvxinnews April 26 is the World Intellectual Property Day, which aims to promote the protection of intellectual property rights and to form the awareness and atmosphere of creating, protecting and applying intellectual property rights in the whole society. On the morning of April 9, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court held a symposium and training session for technical investigators, bringing together more than 10 technical investigators. They may be engineers, doctoral advisors, researchers or experts in certain field outside the court, but have a common identity in Shanghai Intellectual Property Court-Technical Investigator. Data show that 13 technical investigators have been employed successively by Shanghai Intellectual Property Court since its establishment. Technical Investigation Division accepted a total of 124 technical investigation cases, completed 591 technical consultations, evidence preservation, on-site inspections, etc., and issued 36 technical examination opinions since the commencement of their work. Technical investigation has achieved periodic results, which can hardly do without the hard work and efforts of technical investigators. Today, let’s hear their stories. Voice 1: We can sort out and analyze technical disputes for judges, provide professional advice and save their time in hearing cases Chen Li, worked for the Optoelectronic Department of the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, is a technical investigator who joined the technical investigator team of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court in March 2018. In the first month of her exchange in Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, she accepted six cases that required technical investigation, which was difficult for a professional like her. For example, in a patent infringement case involving printers, Chen Li found in the paper that patent claims, instructions and drawings added up to more than 240 pages, with more than a dozen embodiments... “In fact, through what we have learned, we can sort out and analyze the technical facts for judges and provide professional advice, thereby saving their time in hearing cases.” She said. Chen Li, who has been engaged in patent examination for 15 years, spent a week reading more than 240 pages of patent documents, clarifying their logical relationships, and told the responsible judges key points after studying them most of the day. “In some cases, although the patent specification is short, but the actual content is very complicated. The difference lies in ‘a little bit more’ professional content. It is hard to distinguish whether it is a common distinction or whether the products are essentially different. At this point, there is a special need for professional and technical personnel to provide professional analysis and help.” Chen Li said. “I observed that there’s always a thick stack of files on the desks of technical investigators and a steady stream of new cases, so I deeply recognized the importance of our work. The particularity of intellectual property cases makes technical investigation indispensable.” Chen Li also said. In addition, she said that she has learned from only a month’s work. Chen Li has been engaged in the examination of invention patents (licensing and rejection) and she is very curious about the protection of patents licensed. “I’d like to see what impact the previous work has on the protection of intellectual property in the future (good ones and deficiencies), so that we can reflect on the previous patent examination and make our work better.” She said. Voice 2: “We don’t know everything” is perhaps the general concern of technical investigators, but “know more than anyone else” is the biggest reason why they can’t refuse Guo Yinlong, a technical investigator who is a doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, China Academy of Sciences, recently participated in the evidence preservation in an intellectual property case involving coal chemicals in Liaocheng, Shandong Province. It was difficult to start when receiving the task. “I was worried because the case didn’t involve chemistry merely. Though as a technical investigator, I don’t know everything because of the limitation of my profession.” However, in order to complete the task, Guo Yinlong began to study all the patent documents in this case. “I can understand all the chemical knowledge with my own professional background, so I just take a little more time to learn other disciplines.” For three or four days, he studied the case while learning, which even included design discipline, and eventually summed up all the key issues in the case. As one of the first technical investigators appointed by Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, Guo Yinlong has been facing “difficult miscellaneous problems” all the time, which test not only his professional ability, but also his comprehensive strength. “I realized that being a technical investigator doesn’t just mean we provide technical support. We have learned a lot from it, and it’s very meaningful.” Guo Yinlong sighed sincerely. Voice 3: People who do technology research have an instinctive respect for technology. I am willing to work as a technical investigator and love it from my heart Because she lives in Beijing, Liu Fang, Secretary-General of the Internet Intellectual Property Committee of China Intellectual Property Society, has to travel between Beijing and Shanghai to participate in the technical investigation activities of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court. “I love this job and I want to do more work even though I has to travel between these two places. I’m on call whenever needed.” Liu Fang promised. When asked how to insist on her promise, Liu Fang said she loves this part-time job from the heart, as she can give full play to her expertise to help judges to find out the technical facts. “In fact, people engaged in technical research have an instinctive respect for technology, and they also respect innovation. So, they’re willing to do technical investigations.” For Liu Fang, who has been working on patent practice for 25 years, being a 100% perfect technical investigator requires 80% clear technical knowledge and 20% understanding of legal rules, so that she can issue technical opinions independently and assist judges in ascertaining technical facts as an objective and impartial technical assistant. In the summary of the symposium, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court mentioned that since its establishment, technical investigators have made full use of their expertise to provide technical services for intellectual property cases. So far, no case has been ordered by higher court to be remanded for a new trial or ordered for a retrial because of the technical opinions of technical investigators. Technical investigators can help judges to solve technical problems, and judges, most of whom have a legal background. can improve the trial efficiency by virtue of the help of these technical professionals and experts. Technical investigators can either work alone or together to solve multi-disciplinary technical issues. The trial period of cases for which technical investigators appeared in court is 117 days on average, 61 days shorter than that of cases subject to commissioned technical appraisal, which is 178 days on average, and the trial efficiency is 52% higher. Li Shulan, Vice President of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, said 97% of the first instance cases accepted by the court were technical intellectual property cases. Since the establishment of technical investigator team, technical investigators have actively participated in the court sessions, preservation and investigation of cases, and provided objective, impartial, neutral and professional technical services for judges, solving a large number of technical problems and improving the trial quality and efficiency of intellectual property cases. In order to find out the technical facts as soon as possible, many technical investigators got well prepared before the trial and wrote technical examination opinions carefully after the trial. Some worked overtime to complete the technical investigation in high quality with extremely serious and responsible attitude, which was generally praised and welcomed by the judges. Technical investigators have appeared in all cases with social impact tried by Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, some of which were selected as Top 10 intellectual property cases of Chinese courts, excellent adjudicative documents of Shanghai courts, demonstrative court trial and high-quality cases, etc. Vice President Li Shulan put forward four opinions on the future work of technical investigators: first, to find the right orientation and do a good job in technical investigation; second, to perform duty conscientiously and provide quality and efficient professional technical services; third, to forge ahead and actively accumulate the experience in technical investigator system; fourth, to reinforce learning and build a high-quality, specialized technical investigator team. After the symposium, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court held a professional training session, at which Judge Lu Fengyu explained the trial ideas of patent cases while Judge He Yuan explained those of software cases. Through the interaction between technical investigators and judges, technical investigators can better play their role and work together with judges to try the technical intellectual property cases fairly and efficiently. In China, the important role that intellectual property rights play in our lives continues to attract more attention, and it is more important to pay more attention to the ecosystem needed to protect intellectual property rights. China has made some amazing achievements and China’s patent office receives more patent applications than any other patent office in the world. To improve the quality of Chinese products, it’s necessary to open the door to introduce more advanced technologies and products from abroad, which means to protect intellectual property rights. On April 26 every year, a variety of events are held around the world and all over China. Protecting intellectual property rights is respecting the intellectual achievements of others, which is not only to find out pirated editions, investigate fake trademarks, but more importantly, to popularize intellectual property laws and raise the public’s awareness of intellectual property protection. “Respect intellectual property rights and maintain market order” is everyone’s obligation and also an important part of China’s efforts to perfect the socialist market economic system.
