Editing by David Du

The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court reported a 111.5% increase in intellectual property (IP)-related cases filed with the court in 2020, representing a significant jump from 2019. 

According to a white paper released by the court in late April, the number of IP-related cases totaled 5,279 in 2020, while the court concluded 4,789 IP-related cases, increased by 122.23% year-on-year. 

The number of cases involving smartphone chips, storage technologies, software design, passing off on the Internet, false advertising, discrediting, and data mining was rising, indicating a shift of more disputes in the e-commerce and emerging high-tech sectors. 

Disputes over patents, trademarks, copyrights, and franchise contracts were the main causes of the filings. Compared to 2019, the number of patent-related cases increased by 75.69%. The 1,973 patent-related filings were the highest among all filings. However, the court saw the highest increase rate in trademark-related filings, with the number being 1,622, a 654% increase. 

The white paper also shows that tech-related cases accounted for 98.7% of all first instance filings to the IP court last year. Among those, patent infringement cases were the highest in number, with 1,834 filings. This was followed by 491 software contract cases, 104 patent ownership cases, 34 patent contract cases, 33 technical know-how cases, and 16 software ownership and infringement cases.

In its report, the Shanghai IP Court elaborated that it would raise the cost of IP infringement and award reasonably high damages against malicious, deliberated, and repeated infringing activities.