Preliminary Injunction – An Effective Tool For Patent Enforcement Proceedings In China

To combat patent infringements in China, the Chinese Patent Law set up at least three types of remedies for patent holders, namely, preliminary injunction, permanent injunction and damages. Compared with the other two, preliminary injunction sometimes may be more desirable for the patent holder as the infringement could be stopped earlier and further losses of the patent holder be avoided. However, the situation so far is that a preliminary injunction usually is difficult to be granted by the Chinese courts.

The major reasons why the Chinese courts are reluctant to grant preliminary injection are because a patent infringement usually is very difficult to be found in a very short time before the trial. If the injunction is eventually found wrong, serious damages might be caused to the alleged infringer. Consequently the Chinese courts would request that the patent holder provide a bond to the court when requesting the preliminary injunction for possible compensation