China News Service, Shanghai, October 9 (Yang Haiyan, Li Shuzheng) Recently, the Lingang New Area Management Committee, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Office, and the Shanghai Council for the Promotion of International Trade jointly issued the "Neutral Evaluation Rules for Intellectual Property Disputes in the Lingang New Area", marking the official implementation of the country's first rules that position "neutral evaluation" as an independent dispute resolution mechanism. Lingang New Area takes the lead in putting professional forces at the forefront of dispute resolution, providing enterprises with an efficient, professional, and low-cost new path for intellectual property rights protection.
This mechanism is based on the voluntary application of the parties. An evaluation tribunal composed of independent and neutral third-party professionals will conduct a comprehensive evaluation on technical comparison, fact identification, damage judgment and legal application before the initiation of formal civil litigation, administrative enforcement or arbitration, and issue a "Neutral Evaluation Opinion". The evaluation opinions are not used as a direct basis for administrative or judicial enforcement, but they can be used as an important reference for subsequent litigation, arbitration and administrative rulings, and can also help companies "settle their accounts" before making decisions on rights protection.
The four highlights build a “new model” for Lingang intellectual property dispute resolution. First, the system is positioned as the first of its kind in the country and is the first to be tested in the port area. In the past, expert consultation and technical research and judgment were scattered in mediation, litigation and other links. There has never been a set of rules that clearly positioned "neutral evaluation" as an independent dispute resolution mechanism. Lingang writes neutral evaluation into rules, embeds procedures, prepares a good expert database, and connects traditional paths such as administrative adjudication, arbitration, and litigation to form a "Lingang sample" that can be replicated and promoted.
The second is to put professional strength at the forefront, and corporate rights protection has changed from "blind typing" to "clear judgment". The neutral assessment is jointly conducted by senior experts with legal, technical, financial, and industrial backgrounds to help companies fix technical facts early, see clearly the boundaries of rights, and predict legal risks.
The third is Kutodi, a composite expert who specializes in solving the pain point of "unclear technical facts". Promote the recruitment of legal, technical, and practical talents into the database, implement industry-specific and dynamic management, and transform complex technical problems into professional conclusions that can be judged, communicated, and made decision-making.
The fourth is to benchmark against international rules and implement institutional opening up in specific scenarios. The rules are based on internationally accepted rules and practices in terms of confidentiality obligations, avoidance mechanisms, procedural flexibility, and evaluation opinion formation methods. For local companies going overseas, they are a low-cost "rehearsal" field before overseas rights protection; for foreign-invested companies, they are a stable signal that "acting in accordance with international rules" for intellectual property protection in the Lingang New Area.
For enterprises, the core values are "fast, economical, clear and stable". Fast - in principle, evaluation opinions will be issued within 30 working days, supporting electronic delivery and online court hearings; saving - reducing the costs of proof, agency and trial and error caused by blind rights protection; clear - technical facts are justified, liability risks are judged, and settlement plans are based; stable - the entire process is kept confidential and does not block legal relief channels such as litigation, arbitration, administrative rulings, and mediation. It can be embedded in the entire process of case filing, mediation, and administrative processing.
