More foreign companies have chosen Chinese courts to settle their patent and technology-related disputes, due to the equal protection they receive in handling such cases, said an official with China’s top court.

In 2023, the Intellectual Property Court filed 421 cases involving foreign litigants – 267 more than in 2019, the year it was established, said He Zhonglin, first deputy chief judge of the IP Court.

“The growth means that market players have attached great importance to technology and IP rights as part of their core competitiveness, with foreign investors optimistic about the dynamic Chinese market,” he said. "It also indicates that Chinese courts are becoming one of the preferred venues for resolving international IP disputes."

The court provides equal protection to all litigants, whether they are domestic or foreign, state-owned or private, said He Zhonglin.

For example, in November 2021, the IP Court supported a litigant from Switzerland and increased the compensation for the foreign patent holder from 1 million yuan ($139,000) to 20 million yuan.

The case dated back to 2017, when Synthes, a Swiss company that develops and sells instruments and biomaterials for the fixation, repair and reconstruction of human bones and soft tissue, found that Double Medical, a leading Chinese orthopedic implant company, infringed on its invention patent on a device to treat femoral fractures.

Synthes first sued Double Medical in the Changsha Intermediate People's Court in Hunan Province, requesting compensation of 20 million yuan. However, the court only required the company to pay Synthes 1 million yuan. Both sides were unsatisfied with the decision, so they appealed to the IP Court.

Based on the evidence provided by the Swiss company, the court found that the Chinese company's profits from the infringement exceeded 20 million yuan and fully upheld the foreign party's claim for compensation.

In another medical device patent case, in 2016, a subsidiary of Echosens, a French company specializing in liver health, took Wuxi Hisky Medical Technologies to the Beijing IP Court, claiming that a noninvasive liver fibrosis diagnostic instrument produced by the Chinese company infringed its patent.

Unsatisfied with the Beijing court's verdict in favor of the French party, the Chinese company appealed to the IP Court.

"The IP court fully compared and thoroughly studied the technology used in the Chinese instrument and the technology used in the French patent and found that the two were different, so we rejected the French party's claim," He Zhonglin said.

He Zhonglin pointed out that both cases clearly demonstrated the equal protection offered to domestic as well as foreign litigants.

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