Guangdong leads in protecting intellectual property rights

Guangdong province has become an outstanding representative of achievements in protecting intellectual property rights in China, the nation's top court said on Monday.

In 2013, Chinese courts concluded 88,286 IPR civil lawsuits, with a quarter of them tackled in Guangdong, according to statistics provided by the Supreme People's Court and Guangdong Provincial High People's Court.

Of those disputes in the province, some aroused much public attention and were also typical of cases across the country, such as an anti-monopoly lawsuit between Qihoo 360 and Tencent, two large Internet companies in China, the courts said.

Not all courts have the ability to hear IPR disputes, as they require courts and judges to have technology backgrounds, said Zheng E, president of the provincial high people's court.

Guangdong currently has 55 courts, including the high people's court and 21 intermediate people's courts, qualified to deal with IPR cases, Zheng said.

By the end of last year, Guangdong provincial courts disclosed the outcomes of more than 9,400 IPR verdicts on the Internet, aiming to enhance public supervision and ensure transparency, he said.

That number of disclosed IPR judgments ranks first among Chinese courts, Zheng said, adding that some lawsuits that involved hot issues were also open to the public and broadcast via micro blogs.