The Beijing Internet Court has set up online litigation systems to improve judicial protection of internet-related intellectual property rights which accounts for a big part of the court's efforts, according to the court's live press conference on April 22.

The systems include an online integrated litigation platform for personal computers, a mobile micro court for smart phones, and an blockchain electronic evidence-taking platform to help parties finish litigation totally online, freeing them from the routines, saving them time and travel costs.

Since it was founded on Sept 8, 2018 and up to March 31, 2020, Beijing Internet Court handled 54,844 cases, with 76.8 percent of them related to IP rights, according to the press conference.

Xu Zewei, deputy to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, said that the convenience of the online litigation methods helps more businesses to solve disputes via the internet instead of going to physical courts.

He added that keeping up efforts to protect the internet-related IP rights will largely improve the business environment.

The cases on internet-related IP rights are a big part of the total the court handlesand show new features as the internet technologies and business modes develop, including more picture copyright infringement cases, more types of IP protection objects, more copyright disputes caused by new technologies and modes, and more complicated legal relations. 

Internet-related IP rights are hard to protect as their infringement is virtual and the methods of taking and saving the evidences are special, said Li Zhengbin, deputy to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress. 

He praised the efforts of the court to protect internet-related IP rights through judicial blockchain technology, refining judicial rules and other methods.

The online litigation mode is called "green litigation" as it's low-carbon and eco-friendly. 

It reduces the travel distance of the parties involved by about 44.13 million kilometers, avoids piles of paper which can reach 133 floors in height, saves parties’ time on the road to the court by about 16 hours and saves around 800 yuan ($112.88) for each case, according to the court's statistics.

With the litigation system, 100 percent of applications for the court are filed online; all parties immediately receive documents when filed; and 99.67 percent of the cases are tried on the internet.

The average case trial preparation period and hearing time are shortened to 53 days and 31 minutes respectively.

The features of "green" and convenience are conducive to more businesses during the period of COVID-19 prevention and control, said Qian Xiaomeng, deputy to Beijing Municipal People's Congress at the online press conference.