Top court releases intellectual property protection outline

China's top court has released an outline on the judicial protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) between 2016 and 2020, ahead of the World Intellectual Property Day, which falls on Wednesday.

The outline released by China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Monday is the first of its kind in China since the country opened the first legal case of patent dispute in 1985. Since then, the country has heard more than 792,000 civil cases involving IPR.

The outline puts forward eight goals, such as establishing a high-quality cadre of judges, as well as a long-term mechanism for international judicial cooperation on IPR, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

China closed a total of 171,708 IPR cases in 2016, said Tao Kaiyuan, vice president of the SPC, up 20.86 percent from 2015.

The SPC dealt with a total of 177,705 IPR cases in 2016, an increase of 19.07 percent from the previous year, according to a statement released on the website of SPC.

Those included the "Qiaodan" case, which was listed by the SPC as one of the top 10 IPR cases in China in 2016 for other courts to refer to.

The case featured US basketballer Michael Jordan suing Qiaodan Sports, a Chinese sportswear and shoes manufacturer, for unauthorized use of his name and identity, as the brand name is the Chinese transliteration of the name "Jordan."

According to Tao, the SPC will look to significantly improve its ability to provide judicial protection in the next five years, and make more contribution to the international efforts on IPR protection.

China has also made stronger efforts to better protect IPR as part of its larger effort to create a more innovative economy.