The Shanghai Intellectual Property Joint Conference Office recently released the top 10 typical intellectual property, or IP, protection cases in 2022.

These covered various types of IP rights such as copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, Olympic exclusive rights and anti-unfair competition.

The cases have the following characteristics:

First, they have a great social impact. For example, the trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute involving One Hundred Thousand Whys – a popular science book series in China, mostly intended for children. It was the country's first such trademark protection lawsuit filed by the publishers.

Second, they have a strong guiding significance in setting legal precedent. For example, the patent infringement dispute over "prodrugs of substituted polycyclic aminoformyl pyridone derivatives" summarized the general approach of infringement comparisons for Markush Claims, which has certain reference significance for infringement comparison in this type of cases.

Third, they are new types of cases. The case of TWG Tea (Shanghai) Company Ltd's dissatisfaction with the administrative penalty decision of the Pudong IP department – and the administrative review decision of the Pudong New Area government – was the first administrative case involving geographical indication IP rights. This clarified the adjudication rules for infringing geographical indication certification trademark rights and reflected the determination and strength to strengthen geographical indication protection.

Fourth, they involve large amounts of money. Huangshan Futian Machinery Co Ltd, as well as Fang Anjiang and six others, infringed in trade secrets case. The court sentenced Futian to a fine of 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) and a fine ranging from 300,000 yuan to 8 million yuan on individuals.