China's IPR suits see spike in 2012

Without disclosing an exact number, Wang said that transnational companies are becoming defendants of IPR lawsuits in a rising number of sectors.

"The IPR rules are about the same around the world, but transnational companies should still carefully study the laws and regulations of China to avoid infringing others' intellectual property rights," Wang said.

He also said transnational companies can have full confidence in China's judicial protection of intellectual property rights because of improvements China has made in recent years on the issue.

Wang Yancang, president of Suzhou's Huqiu district court, said Chinese companies are gaining awareness of IPR protection issues, and although foreign companies taking their Chinese counterparts to court is still more common, the number of cases in which Chinese companies are accusing foreign players of IPR infringement is on the rise.

Two of the most common sectors are infringement on the patent and trademark of Chinese companies, she said.

She cited the case of Shanghai PepsiCo, one of the soft-drink maker's joint ventures in China, being sued for infringing on a small brewery's rights to the "Blue Storm" trademark in 2007 - an incident that shows Chinese people and companies are increasingly safeguarding their intellectual property rights.

In that case, the High People's Court of East China's Zhejiang province reversed an earlier verdict of a lower court and decided in favor of small brewery Lanye, awarding it 3 million yuan as compensation from PepsiCo for the trademark infringement.