“Encounters” Online. The cyberspace court in China

As the infringements online became more common and frequent, the very advanced solution aiming to solve the IP disputes online has already been taken into action. 

Cyberspace court was set up in August 2018 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province which is the first online court in China. That means various infringements online can find a solution, especially those regarding the online shopping and intellectual property rights.                

It is said that the cyberspace court has already handled 1500 cases or more until now. As internet tech has developed rapidly and copyright issues and e-commerce disputes roared up, the establishment of the cyberspace court can be regarded as a kind of legal reform. 

Usually, the trial can be heard in physical courts, which would cost time, big amounts of money and some complicated procedure. The claimant should submit necessary materials and evidences to the court and that will take several days to review. 

However, under the help of the cyberspace court, even if the related parties are not local resident, they can send evidence via web, and consequently save time and money.

Until now, the cyberspace court has handled several types of cases, including online shopping contract disputes, online shopping products liability disputes, online service disputes, online loan contracts disputes and the High People's Court has the power to further widen the range of these categories. 

For instance, the most common situation sees consumers buy products that do not correspond to the online description, so when consumers get them, they would like to give those goods back. The platform refuses to replace them, causing dissatisfaction in the consumers.

How to apply for an online court? 

The first step is open a lawsuit: applicants have to register an account with electronic litigation platform and get name authentication, then they need to complete a complaint form and upload the concerning information and evidence. Once done, the information provided will be checked.

A compulsory procedure will happen within 15 days after the complaint gets through the system, and a mediator would contact both parties to make mediation. 

So the third step: if the conciliation fails, the plaintiffs shall submit the complete information to the system chamber and pay litigation fees online. 

The result will be sent to the plaintiffs by the method they chosen, and if both parties are dissatisfied with the judgement, they can appeal online as well.

Generally, the cyberspace court can be regarded as a “high-tech” model to all the Chinese court. 

On the other hand, Hangzhou is the local place to many technology companies like Alibaba, the company behind Alipay, and Taobao online marketplace, therefore it is more convenient for consumers to apply to the e-commerce court to protect their legal rights. 

And for now the kinds of applications upon the internet tort online are wider, in this digital times, it denotes that the method of online right protection becomes broader, following the speed of the time is a kind of advanced trend.

Private information security is another important issue during the proceeding of the internet roaring.

In particular, as the trial can be held online, the related information and evidence of both parties have to be confidential to some extent. 

Wu Fei, who is the attorney from the Beijing Zhongmen Law Firm said: “Maybe one day we can file the law suit and contact our judges on our smartphones”. Technology developed quickly more than our imagination, the only problem is time.

The exciting news here is that other two cyberspace courts were set up in Beijing and Guangzhou in September 2018, just one month after the first one in Hangzhou.

It is not only a good tendency for the Chinese internet sector but also benefit for IP owners. During this online court system, the procedural of the system can be more flexible and can get higher quality judgement from the court online, because judge could review the related materials online and easily refer to different scenarios to help them make proper decision or judgement. 

It is said that in the first day of the new cyberspace court in Beijing, it received 200 cases and among them the most frequent are copyright infringements, meaning that this kind of e-commerce system would play an important role in protecting IP rights.

All in all, the two new cyberspace courts quite satisfy the requirement of the E-commerce sector in China and the policy of governments, denoting the phenomenon of burgeoning of the E-commerce.

As a result, the correspondent law would be made out under the enforcement of the cyberspace courts, giving complete protection to the legal rights. 

For example, the Article 1 of the Provisions on Several Issues Concerning the Trail of Cases by the Internet court, says that “An Internet court shall try cases online, and the acceptance, service, mediation, evidence exchange, pretrial preparation, court trial, judgment pronouncement and other litigation links concerning a case shall generally be completed online. 

According to the application o fa party or as needed for the trial of a case, an Internet court may decide to complete part of the litigation links offline. All the steps online may make contribution to strengthen the transparency and trust during the whole procedure.”

Hopefully, the professionalism of the jurisdiction online is as good as the action and decision for the IP courts, and within several years, there would be more cyberspace courts around the Nation. At the same time, the system of the protection can be more completed.

Monica Qi

HFG Law&Intellectual Property