The Supreme People's Court Promulgated the Provisions on Certain Issues Concerning Intellectual Property Courts

2020/1/9

The supreme people's court promulgated the Provisions on Certain Issues Concerning Intellectual Property Courts. The judicial interpretation was adopted by the judicial committee of the supreme people's court at its 1756th meeting on December 3, 2018, and took effect on January 1, 2019. The judicial interpretation aims to further refine the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on certain issues concerning litigation procedures in cases involving patents and other intellectual property rights, strengthen the judicial protection of intellectual property rights, optimize the legal environment for scientific and technological innovation, and effectively ensure that the appeal hearing mechanism of intellectual property rights cases at the national level is effective.

The rules specify that civil and administrative cases involving patents and other technical intellectual property rights shall be appealed to the supreme people's court from January 1, 2019 and shall be heard by the intellectual property court of the supreme people's court.

Provisions on Certain Issues Concerning Intellectual Property Courts is to further unify the standards for adjudicating intellectual property cases, protect the legal rights and interests of various market entities on an equal basis, increase the judicial protection of intellectual property rights, optimize the environment for scientific and technological innovation, and accelerate the implementation of innovation-driven development strategies. 

Intellectual property courts can organize the exchange of evidence and call pretrial meetings through electronic litigation platforms or online video. The meeting of the judges of the intellectual property tribunal consists of the President, the deputy President and some senior judges to discuss important, difficult and complicated cases. The intellectual property court shall strengthen the investigation and investigation of the trial work of relevant cases, timely summarize the judgment standards and trial rules, and guide the trial work of the people's court at the lower level.