On April 22, 2021, Beijing High Court held a press conference to introduce the basic situation of intellectual property trials in Beijing courts in 2020, and issued the Top 10 Cases of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Beijing Courts in 2020 and the Guidelines for Evidence Rules of Intellectual Property Civil Litigation in Beijing High Court. The release of the guidelines will play a positive role in unifying the judgment standards of intellectual property civil cases in Beijing courts and lowering the threshold burden of proof in intellectual property litigation.

The Guidelines also actively respond to technological development trends and improve the review rules for new types of evidence. With regard to electronic data evidence such as third-party deposit certificate and blockchain deposit certificate, in trial practice, there exists a problem of denying the validity of evidence only on the grounds that the authenticity of the electronic data provided by the parties is not easy to judge. In this regard, the Guidelines creatively stipulate the accompanying proof of electronic data evidence, that is, if the parties provide electronic data as evidence, they need to provide a description of the technical process of generating, storing, transmitting and extracting the electronic data evidence; if the electronic data is extracted from a third-party platform, a description of the technical process for generating and storing the electronic data by the third-party platform shall be provided together; when necessary, investigation and collection of evidence shall be conducted on the above-mentioned third party, who shall also provide supporting documents on factors that may affect the integrity and reliability of electronic data.