Recently, the Supreme People's Court made a reconsideration ruling of the behavior preservation case involving infringement of the exclusive right to integrated circuit layout design. According to the Civil Procedure Law and relevant judicial interpretations on intellectual property behavior preservation, it is determined that the application for behavior preservation in the case meet the conditions for approval, the reconsideration request filed by the reconsideration applicants (the respondents in the behavior preservation in this case) Xin Company and Chi Company was rejected, and the behavior preservation ruling made by the Wuxi Intermediate People's Court of Jiangsu Province (hereinafter referred to as the Wuxi Intermediate Court) was upheld.

It is known that this case is the first time that the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court has made a reconsideration ruling in support of behavioral preservation since the implementation of the behavioral preservation reconsideration system in November 2023, providing a practical case for research and reference for the review of behavioral preservation applications.

Behavior preservation, as a temporary civil remedy, aims to prevent the applicant from suffering irreparable damage before the judgment, but it may also have a certain influence on the respondent, stakeholders and even the public interest. When the People's Court's review standards for behavior preservation are too loose, it is easy to cause rights abuse; on the contrary, too strict standards cannot make the system be fully utilized and are not conducive to the timely and effective protection of rights holders. Therefore, it is particularly important to correctly grasp the review standards for behavior preservation in practice.

In this case, the reconsideration ruling explains the differences between the damage compensation system and the behavior preservation system in terms of the protection for the rights holder, it emphasizes the preemptive defense function of the behavior preservation system, and further clarifies the specific considerations for "irreparable damages", such as market seizure, price erosion and other damages, which are usually difficult to be fully compensated by simple compensation for economic losses, and it clarifies the specific content of "irreparable damages" from the perspective of economic analysis. In addition, the reconsideration ruling of this case conducts a relatively comprehensive and specific analysis of the various considerations for whether to take behavior preservation measures in combination with the provisions of relevant judicial interpretations, providing a practical case for reference in handling such cases.

From The Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People’s Court of China

February 13th, 2025