Patent Law

The following is excerpted from a February 13, 2009 NERA press release appearing at Business Wire:

Though intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement damage awards continue to be small in China, the number of IPR awards appear to be increasing and foreign firms seem to be faring better in Chinese courts than Chinese firms, according to a report released today from NERA Economic Consulting.

Intellectual Property Rights Protection in China: Trends in Litigation and Economic Damages analyzes the changing role of Intellectual Property Rights enforcement in China and examines trends in damages awards in IPR cases in China, using a proprietary database, developed by NERA, of cases filed in China between 2002 and 2008.

The authors of the report, NERA Senior Vice President Dr. Alan Cox and Senior Consultant Kristina Sepetys, found that while there has been a marked increase in IPR infringement cases being brought before Chinese courts and, consequently, in the frequency of damage awards over the past decade, the damages both claimed and awarded tended to be very small compared to those in other jurisdictions and compared to the likely degree of harm caused.

The full release and a link to the report (in English and Chinese) are available here.