On December 8, 2016, Beijing IP Court, in a patent infringement
case, found in favor of plaintiff Watchdata System Company Ltd.,
and ordered defendant Hengbao Company, Ltd. to pay an unprecedented
amount of CNY 49 million ($ 7.1 million) in damages for infringing
g a single patent. In addition, the court awarded attorneys'
fees—a rare grant of its kind—in the amount of CNY 1
million ($ 145,000). This decision has demonstrates the increased
willingness of Chinese Courts to enforce IP rights through
assessing relative high penalities on patent infringers.
We discuss below about development and trend of the Chinese
legal system regarding the compensation of patent infringement.
The infringement compensation system is firstly established in
the Chinese Patent Law (1985 version), in which the Article 60
reads: "if any acts of infringement arise from the
exploitation of a patent without the authorization of the patentee,
the patentee or interested parties may request the
