In Chinese Patent Cases, Domestic and Foreign Plaintiffs Succeed on the Merits at Similar Rates

Patent litigation has increased significantly in China, spurred in part by dramatic reforms of the country’s patent system. As part of those efforts, the Chinese government has actively fought against outside misconceptions about China’s patent system—including a prevailing assumption that foreign parties may be at a disadvantage due to the country’s ongoing focus on promoting domestic industries. The government has even gone so far as to explicitly list the equal treatment of foreign and domestic businesses as a policy priority.

RPX data on Chinese patent litigation, including a proprietary database on party nationality, reveal that domestic and foreign plaintiffs (meaning, Chinese and non-Chinese plaintiffs) do in fact win on the merits at a very similar rate for cases decided in the past several years.

As shown below, Chinese plaintiffs get a full win on the merits about 74% of the time in litigation against Chinese defendants (shown as “Chinese Domestic” below) for cases closed in 2015-2019. Foreign plaintiffs, meanwhile, succeed on the merits 77% of the time in cases against Chinese defendants (shown as “Foreign Plaintiff” below). Interestingly, Chinese plaintiffs appear to prevail less often against foreign defendants than domestic ones, winning just 63% of the time against such entities. Since litigation in China mostly involves Chinese domestic parties, the number of cases with foreign parties is relatively small.