Against this backdrop, China IP composed this Cover Story to promote the model IP cases heard and concluded by people’s courts at all levels in 2012. During case collecting process, we received great support from the Supreme People’s Court, the Beijing Higher People’s Court, the Beijing First and Second Intermediate People’s Courts, the Shanghai No. 1 and No. 2 Intermediate People’s Courts, and the People’s Courts of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hubei and Shaanxi provinces, which all send recommended cases as well as introductions of judges to China IP. We are deeply grateful to their efforts.

The cases having been selected for this Cover Story touch upon all areas concerning IP, such as patent right, trademark right, copyright, trade secret, domain names, unfair competition, etc. These cases, for various reasons, such as the high visibility of the parties or the huge amount of money involved, often had great social influences and raised high degree of concern and, most of them were complicated and difficult to define cases requiring strong technical insight. Some of these cases are typical cases with instructive meanings, since they neither have specific legal grounds nor have precedent judgments. Moreover, the successful trial of some foreign-related cases displayed to the international community China’s increasingly mature IP system and judicial IP protection, and received positive feedbacks from domestic and foreign media.

Through every single case, we can see an outstanding team of IP judges. In the trial process, they make thorough analyses on various focal issues, discuss in detail and summarize the rules for determining infringement, sort out their ways of thinking and identify the standards for judging. Their works are the reflection of their superb trial skills and wisdoms as well as beneficial references for the trial of relevant cases which respond effectively to the new demands and new expectations arising from socio-economic and cultural development on the judicial protection of IP, and contribute to the substantial progress of the trial of IP cases.