Trends In Intellectual Property Litigation In China

Haseltine Lake Kempner has operated in China since 2009. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of our Chinese office, we take a quick look at trends in Chinese IP litigation since 2009.

• The total number of civil disputes involving IP has increased explosively, at an average rate of 25% per year. In 2009, local people's courts admitted 30,626 new civil cases. By 2018 this had grown to an incredible 283,414 new cases admitted.
• A similar trend is seen in the Supreme People's Court, which admitted 297 IP-related civil cases in 2009 and 913 in 2018, representing an average annual increase of over 12%.
• The exponential increase in the number of cases admitted does not appear to have overburdened the courts. The numbers of cases closed each year has kept track with cases admitted, growing from 30,509 in 2009 to 273,945 in 2018 in the local people's courts, and 390 to 859 over the same period in the Supreme People's Court.