Beijing judicial administrative authorities committed to improving business environment

Since 2018, judicial administrative authorities of Beijing have paid numerous visits to local enterprises to learn about the legal issues they confront and devised targeted measures to address those issues, in an effort to create a rule of law-based business environment.

Establishing professional mediation teams to tackle IP-related disputes

 "How to resolve disputes for enterprises in a quick and economical way is our focus," said Ding Linfang, deputy head of the mediation work department of the bureau of justice of Beijing, who added that because much expertise is needed in resolving intellectual property-related disputes, such disputes pose a tough challenge to mediation work.

To make the mediation of IP-related disputes more efficient and effective, the bureau joined hands with seven other agencies, including those responsible for intellectual property and cultural products market, to advance the establishment of industry-specific professional people's mediation organizations as early as 2015.

One resulting group, the people's mediation organization under the Beijing Software and Information Service Industry Association, mediated a copyright infringement dispute involving 491 VR panoramas earlier this year. It took the organization just one month to bring the two parties to a mediation agreement without charge, a result the parties acclaimed as "unbelievable."

JD.com, one of China's e-commerce giants, has also benefited from such professional mediation. Through the mediation provided by the people's mediation committee on intellectual property disputes under the Patent Protection Association of China (PPAC), JD.com managed to settle a design patent dispute after it reached an IP protection work agreement with the committee. In addition, the committee also advised it on how to settle any future alleged patent infringements.

Currently, there are over 30 industry-specific professional people's mediation organizations at municipal level in Beijing, which together resolve more than 3,000 disputes annually, well above the rate of other Chinese cities.

Conducting "physical examination" for enterprises

"How to reduce the number of disputes and help enterprises develop in compliance with the law is one of the major concerns for the lawyer profession," said Liang Wenhui, deputy head of the lawyer profession department of the bureau of justice of Beijing.

To create a rule of law-based business environment for the city's private sector, the authority last year launched a rule of law-based "physical examination" campaign, which was free of charge, expert-led and neutral, to help enterprises improve their internal compliance systems.

As one of the beneficiaries of the campaign, the online ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing received a detailed report which not only indicates its legal risks but also gives suggestions on the regulation of the online ride-hailing industry. 

Such customized "physical examination" reports are now a typical part of the campaign.

Making concerted effort to improve the business environment

Apart from launching the "physical examination" campaign, the bureau of justice of Beijing also joined forces with local courts, procuratorates and public security organs to improve enterprises' performance in enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. 

In fact, as a result of such concerted effort across the country, China's ranking on "Resolving Insolvency", an indicator of the World Banks' Doing Business report, is up by 10 spots from last year.

In its latest document on improving business environment, the municipal government of Beijing puts forward a sequence of measures ranging from the establishment of legal counsel teams to the upgrading of such services as legal aid and notarization, in an effort to enhance enterprises' management capability and provide them with more convenient and efficient legal services.