China’s First Intellectual Property Court Makes Its Debut, Two More To Follow

The following is a contributed summary of recent news in China from various sources.

The Beijing Intellectual Property Court, China’s first specialised IP court, came into being on 6 November, for which a ceremony unveiling the court’s nameplate was held at the court’s domicile in the capital city’s Haidian District, home to many technology giants and universities.

(Beijing Intellectual Property Court Nameplate Unveiled. For story in Chinese, see here.)

Final preparations are underway for the official opening of two other intellectual property courts, which will be domiciled in east China’s Shanghai city and southeast China’s Guangzhou city, respectively, with Guangzhou being the capital city of Guangdong Province. According to Chuang Wang, deputy head of the intellectual property tribunal under the Supreme People’s Court, the Shanghai and Guangzhou Intellectual Property Courts are due to be established before the end of the year. (Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou Intellectual Property Courts Soon to Operate in Chinese, see here.)

On 31 August, the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, adopted a resolution (Resolution of the NPC Standing Committee concerning the Establishment of Intellectual Property Courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in Chinese, see here) to set up three intellectual property courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in an effort to push forward the national innovation-driven development strategy and reinforce the judicial protection of IP rights.

In accordance with the resolution, the intellectual property courts have jurisdiction over highly technical civil and administrative cases of first instance, involving patents, new plant varieties, integrated circuit layout designs, and trade secrets, as well as copyright and trademark cases appealed from the grassroots people’s courts of first instance in the cities where the IP courts are domiciled.

Separately, Beijing Intellectual Property Court can handle appeals of decisions awarded by the Patent Reexamination Board under the State Intellectual Property Office, which hears proceedings including patent invalidation, and of those by the Trademark Review Board under the State Industry and Commerce Administration, which hears proceedings including oppositions to registration, cancellation and invalidation proceedings against registered marks.

The decisions awarded by the intellectual property courts can be appealed to the high people’s courts where the IP courts are domiciled. The three high courts are Beijing High People’s Court, Shanghai High People’s Court and Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court, respectively. The decisions of the high courts may also be reviewed on a discretionary basis by the Supreme People’s Court, which is the ultimate authority on the judicial standards.

In the three cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the existing intermediate people’s courts, which heard intellectual property rights cases previously, will no longer handle intellectual property related disputes after the three new courts start work.

The idea of instituting intellectual property courts can be traced back to a decision endorsed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on 15 November 2013, which provided that “the establishment of intellectual property courts should be explored.”

Prior to the establishment of Beijing Intellectual Property Court, the Supreme People’s Court issued a judicial explanation (Regulations of the Supreme People’s Court concerning the Jurisdiction of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou Intellectual Property Courts over Cases in Chinese, see here) on 31 October, which took effect as of 3 November, detailing the intellectual property courts’ jurisdictional rules.

In the explanation, computer software was added to the jurisdictional list under the competence of the intellectual property courts, as courts at lower levels often do not have the technical support for computer software cases.

Mingjiang Liu is an editor, associate professor, and doctor of law in intellectual property with Henan Institute of Animal Industry & Economics in Zhengzhou city, Henan province, China. He may be reached at mjliu@pku.edu.cn.

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