The Supreme People’s Court published its revised judicial interpretation on patent infringement litigation.  I previously blogged about the early draft here.  Here is a Chinese language article on the press conference announcing the draft Judicial Interpretation, which was held on March 22, 2016.  The JI goes into effect April 1.

The drafting and timing of the JI seems to be drafted in part in response to perceived problems in enforcing patents in China, which have put pressure on the legislative bodies, courts and administrative agencies to seek appropriate reforms.  In particular, the JI may be perceived to be another policy initiative undertaken to address the continuing competition between the courts and administrative agencies over which agency should be the principle patent enforcing agency. Justice Tao Kaiyuan addressed this issue for the courts in an article earlier this year, while SIPO’s efforts to enhance its role were articulated in a draft SIPO revision of the patent law released for public comment by the State Council Legislative Affairs Office at about the same time as the draft law was released.

For those inclined to seek political motivations to legislative and policy actions particularly by competing agencies, the release of this JI is also proximate to the release by SIPO of its revised provisional guidelines for administrative enforcement earlier this month (March 2, 2016) (专利行政执法操作指南（试行）.

The court’s press conference noted that the revision of the JI seeks to address concerns over patent litigation involving a high burden of proof, low damages and delay.

Who is winning in this competition – the courts, SIPO, the State or the patentee?  I hope to provide more detailed comments on the JI later.

Update April 3, 2016: : Song Haining has done a good summary of these recent developments in his blog, including an unofficial translation of the JI, available here.