Antisuit Injunctions in Chinese Courts

Abstract

Abstract The increasingly intensified competition arose among national courts over their judicial authority to resolve standard-essential patents (SEPs) disputes. This competition drove courts and litigants to resort to antisuit injunctions (ASIs) more frequently. However, ASIs Chinese courts issued in SEP-related cases raised concerns in foreign countries. Chinese ASIs’ legal basis has evolved through decades of legislation regarding injunctions, including compulsory maritime orders, IPR preliminary injunctions, and general rules of act preservation, despite containing inherent defects that troubled the subsequent antisuit practice. Likewise, Chinese antisuit practice did not emerge overnight but took years to develop, growing from a mere sprinkle in maritime litigations to a respectable drizzle in SEP-related actions. It encompasses orders to prevent foreign collateral proceedings, the injunction to inhibit foreign antisuit orders, and orders to halt foreign substantive proceedings. Chinese antisuit practice is at its nascence and exhibits striking features in SEP cases. However, closely examining Chinese antisuit decisions in SEP cases reveals that so-called Chinese worldwide ASIs were justifiable and legitimate, in terms of substantive conditions and actual operation, even by the EU and US standards. Nevertheless, China needs to reform the relevant laws regarding antisuit relief and refine its antisuit practice in various aspects to fend off due process and other equitable concerns. Only through international coordination can national courts efficaciously tackle the proliferation of antisuit relief in SEP cases.