The one-week high-level session IPBC Connect hosted by IAM was held online from March 22 to 26, 2021. The participants were top intellectual property experts from all over the world. In the Masterclass "The changing disputes environment" session, Lung Tin's partner, Dr. Qinghong Xu was invited by IAM to discuss hot issues on global IP litigation with other main panelists including vice president and chief IP officer of Lenovo, vice president, IP and litigation of Arm, and president from Sisvel. Dr. Xu focused on the recent hot topic of anti-suit injunctions in Chinese courts, which aroused heated discussions.
In the session, Dr. Xu, mainly addressed the issuance of anti-suit injunctions as an increasing phenomenon in the global patent wars, that is, a court in one jurisdiction uses anti-suit injunctions to prevent parties from filing lawsuits in another jurisdiction. If it becomes more complicated, the litigant can also request a court in one jurisdiction to prevent a party from resorting to an anti-suit injunction in another jurisdiction, the so-called anti-anti-suit injunction.
Two recent cases in China (Conversant v. Huawei standard-essential patent licensing dispute; InterDigital v. Xiaomi standard-essential patent licensing dispute) have broadened the scope and boundaries of our country's act preservation system and preliminarily established the judicial practice path of China's anti-suit injunction. The Supreme People's Court ruled China's first injunction in intellectual property rights in the standard-essential patent licensing dispute between Conversant and Huawei. After that, the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court approved Xiaomi’s request for an injunction in the standard-essential patent licensing dispute between InterDigital and Xiaomi. The issuance of the anti-suit injunction signifies a new judicial practice in Chinese courts, and makes the Chinese courts competitive in both the jurisdiction of international disputes and the dominance of rule-making over the subject of standard-essential patents.
In the session, Dr. Xu explained in detail the considerations of the Supreme People's Court for issuing an injunction in the standard-essential patent license dispute between Conversant and Huawei, and compared them with those in other jurisdictions.
IAM held more than 20 individual interactive digital sessions, each designed to facilitate the exchange of information and insight, benchmarking, and sharing the best practice in key areas of strategic IP value creation in this period.
