New approach to patent trials

Foreign experts will be allowed to take part in patent rights trials involving foreign parties, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said Tuesday [February 19,2008].The move is one of a series of measures announced to improve the efficiency of intellectual property rights cases.

"Special policies and measures, and diversified methods will be introduced to help tackle the difficulties of establishing the facts in technical cases," SPC vice-president Cao Jianming told a national conference in Jinan, Shandong province... In recent years, technical lawsuits, especially those involving disputes over patent rights, have become increasingly complicated, and decisions made in courts have taken on much greater significance due to the potentially huge economic interests involved. Decisions can have a dramatic impact on the success of a company or even the existence of an industry, Cao said. "Courts must strike a balance between the interests of rights holders, rights users and the public based on fundamental realities and policies," he said. To accurately judge on patent rights infringements, the country has established mature judicial interpretation principles and judging methods, which combine both international conventions and Chinese characteristics, Cao said.

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