Seven related intellectual property right cases were recently concluded through judge-led mediation by the Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), taking only 33 days from the acceptance of an appeal by the IP Court of the SPC to the settlement.

The seven cases were in different procedural stages and were trialed in four different courts in Jiangsu, Sichuan, Chongqing and Beijing.

All the seven cases arose from patent infringement disputes between Chongqing Yingang Technology Group as plaintiff and Jiangsu Baodiao Motor Vehicle Corporation as defendant.

Yingang filed lawsuits alleging invention patent infringements and design patent infringements in four first instance courts. The cases also involved motor retailers, including Xue Yongwei, Qian Yucheng and Jiangsu Xinhao Technological Motor Vehicle Corporation.

These seven multi-places, multi-proceedings and multi-patents cases were in different proceedings including first instance, second instance and review application to the SPC plus the difference in case hearing courts and trial stages.

After losing one of the first instance cases in Suzhou Intermediate People's Court, Baodiao appealed to the IP Court of the SPC.

Knowing the existence of the seven pending cases in different courts, the IP Court of the SPC decided to make an effort to settle all the cases through judge-led mediation, and finally Yingang and Baodiao agreed to a settlement which can solve all the disputes involved in the seven pending cases.

The parties thus withdrew their lawsuits in all procedural stages. All of the seven cases were settled.  

Mr. Xu Yanru, Chief judge of the Fifth Collegiate Bench as well as the presiding judge handling the appeal and directing the mediation, explained that "All parties in the related cases prefer to settle their disputes through mediation, but knew little about relevant legal knowledge and procedures."

In addition, the cases were in different jurisdictions and in different procedural stages, which made it difficult to balance the parties' interests and reach a consensual settlement, Judge Xu added.

During the course, the IP Court of the SPC adopted alternative dispute resolution mechanism including pretrial mediation, reconciliation, etc., and along with it provided sufficient legal guidance and legal interpretation. The IP Court truly played a leading and professional role in the settlement of the seven disputes.

The joint handling of the seven cases highly improved case trial efficiency and also saved judicial resources.