[Kankannews Network] Remote Video Trial-A New Tool for Shanghai Intellectual Property Court
Publishing time: [October 31, 2018]
October 31, 2018 Kankannews Network
Recently, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court (hereinafter referred to as SIPC) held a pretrial conference on a dispute over infringement of computer software copyright. One party of the case was in South Korea. Through remote video, the party from afar participated in the case hearing and made him/herself fully heard. The whole process was recorded both in writing and video, making things convenient for the parties andeffectively safeguarding their litigious right.
This owes a great deal to the in-depth integration of IT technology and trial as well as the Operation Rules for Case Hearing Through Remote Video (hereinafter referred to as the Rules) recently issued by SIPC.
To promote the Separation of Complicated and Simple Cases, and Speed up the Trial of Simple Cases
Over three years or so since the establishment of SIPC, the number of cases accepted by it has been on the rise year by year. To improve the efficiency of trial, SIPC proactively applies remote video to the hearing of simple cases to facilitate the trial and closure of such cases. The Rules defines the scope of cases suitable for video trial, mainly including the cases of first instance that have been well prepared by means of evidence exchange and pretrial conference as well as the cases of second instance with no factual disputes.
Among the cases judged by resorting toIT technology by SIPC, the ones involving disputes over jurisdiction accounts for as high as 90%. Generally speaking, the parties of a jurisdiction dispute can’t present much evidence and one party maybe live in another city or province. The trail takes a short time, but the long-distance travellingback and forth results in high litigation cost. With the advent of online court, upon the consent of both parties, the court may hear a jurisdiction dispute case through remote video, whichsafeguards their litigious rights and facilitates the closure of it, thus it has been highly welcomed by the parties.
In late August, 27 jurisdiction dispute appeal cases were heard by the online court through remote video in SIPC. Each and all of them was tried within one hour. After hearing the opinions and final statements of both the parties concerned, upon deliberation, the collegial panel would make its decision five days after the hearing. Online trial brought the parties concerned much closer to the court, saving a lot of time for the parties with the application of IT technology.
To Safeguard Litigation Rights and Shorten Trial Period
The Rules stipulates that remote video trial should be in line with the principles of public trial according to the law, voluntariness, efficiency as well as safety and standardization to guarantee the parties' right to know, right to choose and the right to raise objections.
The consent of the parties shall be obtained to for remote video trial. Therefore, For this purpose, SIPC specially formulated the Notification Letter of Case with Remote Video Trial and Confirmation Letter of Case with Remote Video Trial which will be sent to the parties and other litigant participants by the judge assistant through e-mail, fax or posting 10 days before the hearing. The parties and other litigant participants who agree to remote video hearing shall sign on the confirmation letters.
In the Rules, specific provisions are made for the online transfer of demonstrated evidence and hearing records and as well as the whole-process traceability of hearing, taking into consideration security and real-time trial and facilitating the efficient and legaloperation of the remote video hearing mechanism.
Recently, SIPC pronounced the judgment on a dispute over computer software development contract via the online court. In the two court hearings, the plaintiff and the defendant, based in Shanghai and Chongqing respectively, participated in the whole process of trial through video calls. It took 51 days to close this case. The trial periods of most technical intellectual property casesare usually quite longer and the trial of this case highlights the efficiency of Internet trial.
To Break through Space-time Barriers, and to Embody High Efficiency and Convenience
Technical dispute facts should be ascertained during the trial of intellectual property cases. For this reason, technical hearing or expert witness's statement on technical issues in the court are required for some cases. Based on the features of intellectual property cases, the Rules stipulates that remote video trial is applicable to all the sections of trial including case opening, conciliation, hearing, consultation, inquisition and determination to improve trial efficiency.
For example, in the trial of a dispute over a computer software development contract in SIPC, video evidence demonstration was achieved by making video calls to the witness who cannot appear at the court in person. Through this way, witness verification and cross-examination of the party were completed. Another example was the trial of a dispute over infringement of patent for invention. In this case, the parties and their agents as well as the expert group members of the identification institution were all based in Beijing. In order to save litigation cost and improve hearing efficiency, the technical hearing to investigate and conduct hearing of technical factswas held through remote video upon the agreement of the parties concerned. The hearing was expected to last for a whole day. With the aid of remote video, it ended up taking only 4 hours, greatly accelerating the process of the trial.
(KankannewsKnews Reporter: Wu Haiping Trainee Editor: Yao Nijia)
