On September 28 and 29, 2006, the International Conference on Comparative Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights was held in Chongqing, the People’s Republic of China. Judge Tatsubumi Sato from the IP High Court participated in the conference.

The conference was jointly hosted by the Intellectual Property Division of the Supreme People’s Court of China and the Quality Brand Protection Committee (hereinafter referred to as the “QBPC”), with support of the High People’s Court of Chongqing. About 50 judges in charge of IP cases from throughout the PRC, ten legal professionals (judges and lawyers) from foreign countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan, and about 30 lawyers from the QBPC participated in the conference. Discussions were held on five themes, i.e. “patent infringement,” “evidence,” “trade secret infringement,” “preliminary measures,” and “damages and judge’s discretion.”

On September 28, sessions were held under the three themes of “patent infringement,” “evidence,” and “trade secret infringement.” At each session, following keynote speeches by panelists, participants discussed the respective theme for about one hour. Judge Sato of the IP High Court gave a 20-minute speech entitled “Trade Secret Protection in Japan” at the “trade secret infringement” session, and participated in the subsequent discussion as a panelist. There was a series of questions from Chinese judges and QBPC members and a vigorous debate at all these sessions.

The next day, sessions were held for the remaining two themes of “preliminary measures” and “damages and judge’s discretion,” and participants actively joined the discussions.

The summary of the speech is available here(23KB,40KB).