On the morning of April 20, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court and China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Administration held a seminar to release the White Paper on the Trials of FTZ-related Intellectual Property Cases and to discuss the IPR judicial protection. Zhang Bin, Vice President of Shanghai High People’s Court, Wang Jing, Deputy Director of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Administration, Wang Qiuliang, President of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, Li Shulan, Vice President of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, Lin Benchu, Director of Pudong Intellectual Property Administration, Jin Minzhen, Vice President of Pudong New Area People’s Court of Shanghai, and other leaders attended the seminar. Representatives of FTZ enterprises and reporters from Shanghai offices of central news entities and local media were also present.

Li Shulan, Vice President of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, briefed the Situation on the Trials of FTZ-related Intellectual Property Cases (2015-2017) and then had a discussion with the participants. More than 10 representatives from CHATEAU LAFITE ROTHSCHILD, Shanghai Zhuangyou Information Technology Co., Ltd., Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation and Yakult (China) Investment Co., Ltd., etc. expressed their gratitude and appreciation to Shanghai Intellectual Property Court for its initiatives to strengthen the IPR judicial protection in Free Trade Zone and the achievements that have been made. Meanwhile, they talked about the confusions and problems encountered during their IPR management, protection and litigations, which provide opinions from the forefront to the courts to further strengthen the IPR protection and solve the difficulties, pains and obstacles in IPR creation, protection, and application during enterprise innovation and entrepreneurship.

At the seminar, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court also presented three collections of typical intellectual property cases to the enterprise representatives, which aim to, through the case study, give full play to the guiding, regulation, prevention and education role of judicial adjudications, advocate the culture of innovation, and create a good atmosphere of respecting and protecting IPR in the whole society.

Wang Jing, Deputy Head of Pudong New Area and Deputy Director of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Administration, said that strengthening IPR protection is an important part of creating a good business environment, and is also a key element to promote high-quality economic development. China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zonebearsthe mission to align with the national development strategies, and FTZ Administration will further perfect the IPR projection pattern of “judicial protection, administrative protection, mediation and arbitration, and social supervision,” continue to deepen the mechanism of cooperation and consultation with Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, and promote the resolution of IPR disputes in diversified ways to form a good legal environment for IPR protection.

Wang Qiuliang, President of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, said that serving and protecting FTZ construction is an important part of serving and protecting the national strategies and overall work of Shanghai. Shanghai Intellectual Property Court will continue to strengthen the innovation, improve the mechanisms, better play the role of centralized jurisdiction of IPR cases in unifying the application of laws, establishing the rules of adjudication, and leading the social value, etc., so as to enhance the level of IPR judicial protection and respond to the needs of the reform and development of free trade zone. Wang Qiuliang also gave a positive response to the questions raised by enterprise representatives and said that he would study them seriously and work hard to create a legal environment for encouraging and protecting innovation. 

Zhang Bin, Vice President of Shanghai High People’s Court, informed the situation of trials of FTZ-related intellectual property cases by Shanghai courts. He pointed out that in the course of FTZ construction, FTZ Administration, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court and Pudong New Area People’s Court of Shanghai have done a lot of work on the IPR protection in FTZ and have achieved good results. The IPR protection in FTZ determines the business environment of the zone and the future development of enterprises to some extent. Shanghai courts will further implement the requirements on IPR protection put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping in his keynote speech at the Boao Forum for Asia, adhere to the principles of strict protection and equal protection, encourage innovation, give play to the leading role of judicial protection, strengthen the interaction with administrative organs and intensify protection, thereby serving and protecting theconstructionof China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone in a better way.