On the afternoon of June 25th, the survey project team of Xuhui District People’s visited Watson & Band. Watson & Band’s Senior Founding Partner Shenmin Xu, Managing Partner Jean Yang, and Executive Managing Partner Jeff Kong, together with other Watson & Band members, warmly received the survey team and had a meeting with them to explore and discuss the development trends and front-burner issues in the trial practice of IP cases.

Watson & Band first introduced its overall conditions to the survey team, as well as its unique service system through independent research and development, which was highly commended by the survey team for its thoughtful design and efficient operation. The survey team also emphasized on the importance of IP rights protection and encouraged us lawyers to get involved in the IP cases for professionalism and efficiency concerns.

Then the survey team mentioned a latest trend in the IP trial practice – from July 1st, 2018 and on first-instance IP cases within Xuhui, Songjiang, Jinshan, Minhang, Fengxian and Changning Districts will be subject to the unified jurisdiction of Xuhui District People’s Court. Meanwhile, the survey team also pointed out three issues requiring improvement: (i) the amount of damages for infringement (of IP rights) should be appropriately raised; (ii) the appellate courts’ function of error correction should be appropriately enhanced; and (iii) the courtroom mediation mechanism should be more often applied in litigation.