With the launch and advancement of China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” and greater national supports for and emphasis on IP protection, the number of IP cases involving foreign elements has been growing in the recent years. Cases with significant  compensation with international influence emerge one after another in the Chinese courts. Increasing number of international enterprises therefore choose to safeguard their IP inChina.

To provide higher quality services for domestic and foreign clients and advance the promotion and publicity of IP protection inChina, East & Concord Partners IP Department, in cooperation with NGB Corporation, held two lectures in the form of Model Court in Tokyo and Osaka on February 28, 2018 and March 1, 2018, respectively.

East & Concord designated seven partners/consultants/senior associates to such Model Court activity. Qinghua Qing, person in charge of East & Concord IP Department, and Kiyoshi Miyazaki, president of NGB Corporation, delivered the opening speeches. Qinghua Qing expressed that the legal services provided by East & Concord has been much trusted by its Japanese clients; that the Model Court, in a form that was so close to real life, allowed the clients to understand the IP protection environment in China in a more real and in-depth manner, displayed the enormous changes brought by China’s strengthening of IP protection, thus the Model Court activity provided an opportunity for the clients to keenly understand the IP litigation practice in China and the Chinese IP lawyers.

Kiyoshi Miyazaki said that East & Concord is a law firm  that is  trusted by Japanese clients, that the whole process, total-factor and practical demonstration and interpretation of IP in the form of Model Court further displayed the high capabilities of East & Concord in providing IP legal services. He thanked the lawyers of East & Concord for preparing the Model Court with dedication, and believed that the Japanese enterprises will have an even deeper and clearer understanding of IP protection in China via this Model Court.

Model Court demonstrated actual infringement cases heard in China. After over six months of devoted preparation, colleagues of East & Concord IP Department reproduced, for the clients who took part in the lectures, the litigation process of patent infringement cases involving foreign elements in China through eight model illustrations, ranging from the strategies adopted by the plaintiffs to communicate with the lawyers and protecting their rights after discovering the infringement, the notarized purchase process of infringement evidence, the plaintiff’s issuance of demand letter and the defendant’s response to demand letter, the plaintiff’s bringing the case to the court, the defendant’s application for nullification, and invalidation court procedures (first instance, second instance); and introduced and discussed  elements rule, the equivalents rule and estoppel in China’s patent system. To make Model Court more comprehensive and enhance its impact, the lectures were rehearsed many times, and the legal instruments that may be encountered and involved in patent infringement cases were developed and made into manuals for the clients. In the form of micro film, the notarized purchase process was truthfully demonstrated, allowing the clients who took part in the lectures to understand China’s patent system, patent administrative examination system and judicial trial system. 

Through these two lectures, lawyers of East & Concord Partners demonstrated the strength of East & Concord in the IP area to over 200 Japanese enterprises that attended the lectures.