Courts in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Shanghai hold joint meeting on IP protection
On Dec 12, the Beijing Internet Court (BIC), in conjunction with the Binhai New Area People's Court of Tianjin Municipality, Rongcheng County People's Court of Hebei Province, and Pudong New Area People's Court of Shanghai Municipality, held an online joint meeting of intellectual property (IP) judges. The initiative aims to strengthen judicial coordination in IP protection in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Beijing-Shanghai region.
Zhao Changxin, vice-president of the BIC attended the meeting along with judges' representatives from the IP divisions of the four participating courts.
During the meeting, Zhao reviewed the BIC's implementation progress of the framework agreement among the four courts on enhancing copyright protection and governance. He noted that since the signing of the agreement, the four courts have engaged in practical cooperation, leveraging their respective strengths, and have organized multiple joint activities on legal education, surveys, and mediation, which have yielded fruitful outcomes. Pointing out that this meeting was another major measure to implement the agreement, Zhao reckoned the significance of the meeting in strengthening cooperation and deepening consensus among the four courts.
The four courts then introduced their work on IP adjudication in the past year, including the characteristics of the cases and prominent issues faced. They also held in-depth discussions on some difficult legal issues in judicial practice, such as whether e-commerce operators can defend the display of product images on web pages by citing legitimate sources, whether heirs or legatees can claim the removal of the impact of an infringement of the personal right of a deceased author to a work, and whether authorized distributors of works are liable for compensation for any infringement content in the works they disseminate.
The signing of the framework agreement is an important measure taken by the four courts to thoroughly implement the central authorities’ instructions on IP protection, a concrete action to advance the coordinated development strategy of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and to strengthen the rule of law in IP protection. Additionally, it marks a major step towards strengthening judicial cooperation in copyright protection and governance within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and between Beijing and Shanghai.