Movers and Shakers: Supreme Court Starts to Hear Intellectual Property Appeals

Keeping intellectual property law consistent: On Jan. 1, China’s Supreme People’s Court officially set up a special court to take over appeals of intellectual property cases from provincial-level high courts. Luo Dongchuan (罗东川), a deputy head at the Supreme People’s Court, has been appointed chief of the special court.

China’s decision to create this court marks its latest effort to protect intellectual property rights with uniform refereeing standards. Previously, different courts occasionally made judgements in such cases which were mutually inconsistent. China’s approach follows international practice. In the U.S., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit hears appeals nationwide on patent cases from different courts, in a bid to ensure uniformity in patent law.

China’s move, which is widely seen as a milestone step, comes after the U.S. criticized China for poor protection of intellectual property rights, which is a hot topic in the trade negotiations between the two.

Luo, 53, is highly experienced in intellectual property trials. He is also known for his part in the 1993 founding of China’s first intellectual property court, which to this day operates under Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court.

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From left: Ren Hongbin, Zhang Wei, and Yang Yudong

New SOE watchdog: Ren Hongbin (任洪斌) has been named a deputy chief of the State Council’s powerful State-owned Supervision and Administration Commission, which oversees more than 90 centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Ren, 55, is the former chairman of the state-owned China National Machinery Industry Corp., also known as Sinomach. He joined a Sinomach subsidiary in the mid-1980s, and worked his way up from salesman to president. In 2001, he began to work for the parent company, becoming its chairman in 2013.

New boss at an oil giant: Zhang Wei (张伟) has been appointed general manager of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), one of China’s largest oil and gas producers. Previously, Zhang was general manager of chemicals giant Sinochem Group Co. Ltd., working at the company for over two decades.

The CNPC had been headless since November when previous general manager Zhang Jianhua (章建华) was named head of the National Energy Administration, the energy policy watchdog.

Reform of railway titan: Yang Yudong (杨宇栋), former director of the National Railway Administration, has been named general manager of China Railway Corp., which manages the world’s second-biggest railway network behind that of the U.S. Yang has worked in the railway system since the 1990s, and climbed the ladder to become a vice transport minister in 2016.

China Railway is speeding up its shareholding reforms to further separate administrative duties from business operations. The company may be renamed China National Railway Group Co. Ltd. after a corporate overhaul, Caixin has learned. Lu Dongfu (陆东福), Yang’s predecessor, has been promoted to the company’s chairman.

Moves at State Grid: Xin Baoan (辛保安), a deputy general manager of the State Grid Corp. of China, the world’s biggest utility company, has been made its general manager. Xin’s predecessor, Kou Wei (寇伟), formally took office as the company’s chairman last month.

Xin started his career by climbing his way up the power industry’s ranks in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province. Before joining State Grid in 2016, he had worked at China Huadian Corp. Ltd., one of China’s major power companies, for 14 years.

China’s two major grid companies — the other is China Southern Power Grid Co. Ltd. — and five major power companies, were all born in 2002 from the breakup of the monolithic China State Power Corp.

Contact reporter Lin Jinbing (jinbinglin@caixin.com)

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