The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court granted 15.05 million yuan ($2.20 million) in damages in a recent software piracy case, the highest damages awarded since the court’s establishment in late 2014.
The record sum underscored the city’s determination to protect IP and crack down on infringers, insiders said.
The court ordered Shanghai-based TJ Innova Engineering & Technology Co to pay France-headquartered Dassault Systemes the amount for computer software copyright infringement.
Over the past three years, the court has supported legal hold in 638 cases, with 79 of them targeted at pre-trial evidence preservation and 559 during lawsuits.
Malicious and repeated infringements are a major target in the court’s fight for IP protection.
In a trademark case filed by Honeywell International Inc in 2016, the Shanghai IP court, as an appeal court, increased the damages from 80,000 yuan ordered in a previous ruling to 300,000 yuan, after considering several factors, including the popularity of the trademark and the liability of the violator.
IP protection is one of the plan’s focuses. Shanghai will be built into an IP hub where judicial and administrative authorities cooperate for better protection, Shanghai-based news website Thepaper.cn reported.

Source: China Daily