Nearly 91 percent of plaintiffs who brought intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement cases to court in Shanghai between 2002 and 2010 were successful, according to a research report by Shanghai Jiaotong University's National Image and Urban Culture Innovation Strategy Research Base, to be released on Tuesday.

"The high win rate is a result of the transparent IPR legal system, where we can easily access all the legal documents," Xu Jian, the research base's executive director, who led the research, told the Global Times.

The research also pointed out that when the plaintiff was a foreign company, the win rate was 81.3 percent, lower than the average of 91 percent.

"This is explained by foreign companies' lack of confidence in China's IPR protection system.  Many of them don't bother to file lawsuits against their Chinese counterparts," Xu said.

"Shanghai can be seen as a typical example for the average level nationwide," Xu told the Global Times on Monday.

According to Chen Naiwei, a partner at the Shanghai Allbright Law Offices and professor of law with Fudan University, the report serves as solid proof that China's intellectual property rights protection system is very efficient, despite claims to the contrary by foreign media, Chen told the Global Times.

Xu Jian added that the report may give the impression of excessive IPR protection, leading to monopolies. Xu believes the IPR protection system will see more anti-monopoly cases.

"We've seen lots of foreign online anti-monopoly cases such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. I hope in the future more cases such as Tencent fighting against 360 will be handled through legal procedures," Xu said.

(Source:Global Times)