Civil IP litigation statistics in China

China is famous for its enthusiastic production of statistics and IP is no exception. Chinese civil court IP cases are often touted as evidence of the growing sophistication of the Chinese IP legal system. Below are some published numbers for civil IP cases:

Year - No. of IP cases
2006 - 16,708
2007 - 20,265
2008 - 28,217
2009 - 36,001

The latest release of data states that civil IPR cases jumped nearly 40% last year; specifically in the first 11 months of 2010, the courts heard 32,748 first instance IP disputes. Go back to the early 2000s and the number was just a few thousand. At that level it is the largest civil IP docket in the world. There are probably more patent trials than in Germany or the US now.

In contrast IP Komodo’s home in Indonesia hears around 100 civil IP cases a year at first instance. The renowned specialist CIPIT court in Thailand published that its 2009 docket was 321 civil IP cases. Why is China for far ahead? Some say it’s the enthusiastic use of the courts by local PRC companies.

But IP Komodo has spotted something which calls into question how to interpret these numbers. In a recent Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court copyright case Beijing News alleged that Zhejiang Online had copied over 7700 articles without authorization on its website. The court asked the plaintiff Beijing News to separate the matter into individual 'cases' based on the number of articles copied. The plaintiff would have to file 7700 separate 'cases' for the dispute! It is quite common for some PRC courts to require separation of claims into separate 'cases' in court because it involves different rights, whereas in other countries multiple claims and infringing acts can be combined in the same action. And Judges have an incentive to increase the number of 'cases' as it is one of the elements in their performance appraisal. Esteemed PRC former Judge Zhang Zhipei was critical of the Hangzhou court’s decision in the news reports. While no doubt China has become one of most IP litigious countries, the calculation of numbers of 'cases' may not necessarily match the actual number of disputes.

Guest post by IP Komodo Dragon

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Parasitizing Trademarks of Drugs in China Breeds Resistant Malaria Parasite

World Health Organisation (WHO) officials say that counterfeit drugs and poor storage are endangering the health of millions of people in Asia.

Ron Corben wrote for Voice Of Amercia the article WTO Fears Growing Malaria Drug Resistance May Be Spreading (November 28, 2010): "In recent years, authorities cracked down against illegal factories in China. Meanwhile counterfeit producers have been found elsewhere, including Cambodia and Burma."

Simeon Bennett wrote for Asia Health Space the article Malaria Redux And Counterfeit Drugs (April 2, 2010): "In Pailin [Cambodia], a flood of counterfeit pills from China and elsewhere is helping to breed a superbug that resist even the most-effective medicine." Read .

This problem is recurring for years now:

2009: See Simeon Bennett's 2009 Bloomberg article Fake Malaria Drugs Spread, Breed Resistance to Lethal Parasite.

2008: ScienceDaily article 'Fake Malaria Drugs Made In China: Tracking Down The Threat To Global Health'.

2007: Jill McGivering's 2007 BBC News article 'Tracking the fake malaria drug threat'.

Eye for an eye

What is a fitting punishment for these counterfeiters? Denying them help when they would contract Malaria? But even if you would impose the biblical sanction of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, how can you sanction someone that contributes to the death of not one but thousands of people who contracted Malaria and use counterfeit drugs that do not cure them?

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EU Internal Market Commissioner: Anti-counterfeiting and -piracy Solutions To Be Found In Public-private Cooperation

On a 13 May commission-sponsored high level conference, the Internal Market Commissioner Mr Charlie McCreevy stressed that regulation is not the only answer to fight counterfeiting and piracy, but that the private sector itself is best placed to lead the battle against the fakes. Tomorrow exactly two years ago, when Mr McGreevy visited China to advance the international regulatory agenda, he probably had higher hopes for regulation, read here (pdf).

Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of l’Union des Fabricants, whose members include Pfizer, Lacoste, Microsoft and Disney, said:

"There is qualitative change as activities become global, and diversification into goods and products such as wine, car parts, clothing, and toys, he said. Counterfeiting is increasingly carried out by organised crime, and industrialisation means tourists no longer have to travel to Thailand to buy fakes from China but can find them anywhere, including online [..]".

Read Dugie Standeford's article for Intellectual Property Watch here.

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China Bad News For Thailand's Counterfeit Manufacturers

Jeffrey Sheban wrote another insightful article about the counterfeiting industry, entitled 'Thailand's counterfeit pipeline' for the Columbus Dispatch. Don't worry, IP Dragon has not lost its focus on IP in China. Mr Sheban observed that Thailand is the hub for Chinese counterfeit products.

Rusty Lerner, who runs Quantico Ltd., one of the largest private investigation shops in the region says: "China has taken over most of the manufacturing (of legitimate and illicit goods) because the labor there is just so cheap," he said. While Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have plenty of factories, those countries increasingly serve as conduits for Chinese-made goods pouring into Thailand. Ray Tai, a Hong Kong-based lawyer responsible for policing adidas brands in Asia, can attest to the recent change. "They all have their counterfeit goods, but in the past couple of years, the Chinese counterfeiting machine has basically wiped them off the map."

Read Sheban's article here.

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