By Bill H. Zhang

On April 21, 2009, China’s Supreme People’s Court (“Supreme Court”) circulated an Opinion on Several Issues Concerning Trial to Intellectual Property Cases in the Current Economic Situations (“Opinion”) under Documentation Fa Fa (2009) No. 23 to local people’s courts at all levels, guiding them to effectively try intellectual property (“IP”) related disputes. In the Opinion, the Supreme Court expressively emphasized that juridical protection to IP must be further strengthened and may not be lessened in the current economic downturn. For this purpose, the Supreme Court has designed certain new rules and systems to strengthen protection to trademarks and patents, and further perfected IP litigation systems so as to improve China’s trading and investment environment. These new rules and systems have greatly enriched the current Chinese IP regimes. Foreign companies having business operation in China shall acquaint themselves with these changes so as to restructure their IP strategy and get their IP effectively protected in China.

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