Xia Junli, Secretary of the Leading Party Group of Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court

(March 22, 2021)

Distinguished leaders and guests,

After accumulation for thousands of years, the germ-plasm industry is just flourishing at the right time. I believe that the holding of such a grand gathering and high-end forum will be of far-reaching significance. Firstly, I am entrusted by Chen Fengchao, President of the Provincial Higher People's Court, to express my warm congratulations on the success of the conference and this forum! Thanks for the invitation of the Organizing Committee. It is a great honor for me to take this opportunity to introduce the main situation of the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court playing the judicial function, serving the national strategy and strengthening the judicial protection of intellectual property rights.

On December 26, 2020, the 24th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress adopted the decision on the establishment of Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court. On December 31, 2020, Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China, and Shen Xiaoming, Secretary of Hainan Provincial Party Committee, jointly unveiled the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court, which became the fourth specialized intellectual property court after Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou Intellectual Property Courts.

As President Zhou Qiang has pointed out in his explanation to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the establishment of the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court is an inevitable requirement for implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port and the major strategic deployment of the central government. It is also an important measure to strictly protect the intellectual property rights, drive the development through service innovation and promote the construction of a new development pattern. Shen Xiaoming, Secretary of Hainan Provincial Party Committee, also pointed out that the establishment of Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court is a powerful measure to thoroughly implement the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, which is of great significance for Hainan to comprehensively deepen the reform, build a free trade port with Chinese characteristics and achieve a higher level of opening up. In the opening speech, Vice President He Xiaorong also mentioned that highlighting the judicial protection for intellectual property rights of seed industry in "Nanfan Silicon Valley" is also one of the important considerations for the establishment of the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court.

The Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court has distinct characteristics of free trade port:

First, the title reflects the characteristics of the free trade port. It is beneficial for the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court to enhance its international influence.

Second, the justice system innovates. Unlike other intellectual property courts, which only accept civil and administrative cases, the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court has increased its criminal judicial function and implemented the "three-in-one" judicial mode of civil, administrative and criminal cases to increase the intensity and strength of protection.

Third, the structure of internal organizations reflects the spirit of reform. According to the internal organization reform concept of "big business, big justice and small administration", only two administrative departments, the Political Department and the Judicial Affairs Department, are set up, with the other five internal organizations being all business departments, and the executive council is set up separately, to realize the whole process of "case filing", "trial" and "execution", which reflects the specialized requirements of intellectual property protection.

Fourth, the cadre team is new. There are 25 police officers selected by the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court in the first batch, including 2 doctors and 12 masters, of which 19 people graduate from the law major and 3 from foreign language majors, with an average age of 36, making them the youngest team in the courts in the province.

In terms of case jurisdiction, the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court, as a first-instance court, has jurisdiction over cases mainly including: professional and technical first-instance intellectual property civil and administrative cases related to patent, technical secret, computer software, new plant variety, layout design of integrated circuit, identification of well-known trademark and monopoly disputes in Hainan Province. In such technical intellectual property cases including new plant variety, if the parties refuse to accept the judgment of first instance, they will appeal to the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court.

As a second-instance court, the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court hears appellate and protested cases by the Basic People's Court of Hainan Province (now referring to Haikou City Qiongshan District People's Court and Sanya Suburban People's Court), mainly involving civil, administrative and criminal judgments and rulings such as copyright and trademark;

In addition, it has jurisdiction over other cases determined by the Supreme People's Court.

Since the establishment, the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court thoroughly implements the guiding principle from General Secretary Xi Jinping's major speech on comprehensively strengthening intellectual property protection, implement Xi Jinping's thought on the rule of law, and adhere to the principle of getting a good start with high quality, high standard, high starting point and high efficiency under the guidance of the Supreme People's Court and the Provincial Higher Court with the attention and support of the provincial party committee and government as well as relevant departments. The first is to actively serve the overall situation with the guide of political construction. Continue to strengthen the judicial protection for the intellectual property rights of emerging industries, key areas, key core technologies and new plant varieties in Hainan, and continuously improve the overall service level. The second is to strengthen the construction of quality-oriented ability with the goal of modernization of judicial ability. The third is to focus on exchange and cooperation based on the construction of the large protection pattern. Establish a normal communication and docking mechanism with the provincial intellectual property office and key parks, and actively integrate into park services by establishing judicial protection contact points and setting up circuit trial courts. The fourth is to create high-quality trials by serving the development of characteristic industries. Pay special attention to the trial of cases such as new plant variety and independent software development, strictly check on the evidence and law application, and demonstrate the value orientation of encouraging and protecting innovation in judicial judgment. The fifth is to strengthen publicity work by showing a new image of judicial protection. Deepen external exchange and cooperation.

Ladies and gentlemen, at the opening ceremony of the conference, Governor Feng Fei has emphasized in his speech that Hainan will focus on improving six major systems of germ-plasm resources conservation, breeding base guarantee, seed industry science and technology innovation, modern seed industry, seed industry policy system and seed industry supervision and governance; experts have also put forward many insights on how to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in seed industry, with ensuring national food security and the safety of important agricultural products as the core of variety innovation; Yangzhou Bay Sci-tech City will also be built into a special intellectual property zone for seed industry;The Supreme People’s Court will also issue judicial interpretation about new plant variety protection... Driven by independent innovation, China's seed industry has entered a new development stage and will usher in a new spring. The Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court will give full play to the functions of specialized courts in stimulating creation, promoting application, increasing protection, supervising management and improving services, actively build an integrated intellectual property protection mechanism with "full chain, full coverage, focus included, strong synergy and high level", which will not only hear cases involving new plant variety efficiently with high quality and resolve disputes in time, but also study and solve the new situation and new legal problems faced by the protection of new plant varieties under the development of Hainan Free Trade Port, actively undertake the responsibility and mission of judicial service to ensure the development of seed industry and the safety of provenance, strengthen the judicial protection of intellectual property rights of provenance, create a good legal environment for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, and make new contributions to comprehensively strengthening the judicial protection of intellectual property rights during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

I sincerely thank all the leaders and guests for your concern and support for the work of the Hainan Free Trade Port Intellectual Property Court!

I wish the forum a complete success! Thank you all!