On 21 Oct. 2023, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued “Decisions to Amend the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Intellectual Property Court” (关于修改最高人民法院关于知识产权法庭若干问题的规定的决定).

Related Posts:

• The First Year Performance of the SPC Intellectual Property Court
• SPC Releases 2022 Annual Report on Intellectual Property Protection by Chinese Courts

According to the amended rules, the jurisdiction of the SPC’s Intellectual Property Court is as follows.

I. The Intellectual Property Court shall hear the following appeal cases including:

1. administrative appeals relating to the granting or confirmation of patents, new plant varieties, or integrated circuit layout designs;
2. civil or administrative appeals relating to the ownership of and infringement upon invention patents, new plant varieties, integrated circuit layout designs;
3. major or complicated civil or administrative appeals relating to the ownership of and infringement upon utility model patents, technical know-how, or computer software; and
4. civil or administrative appeals relating to monopolies.

II. The Intellectual Property Court shall hear other cases including:

1. major and complicated civil and administrative cases of first instance nationwide of the types as mentioned in the preceding paragraph;
2. cases of petition for retrial, protest, and retrial where the trial supervision procedure is applicable with respect to legally effective judgments, rulings, and consent awards of civil and administrative cases of first instance as mentioned in the preceding paragraph;
3. cases on disputes over the jurisdiction of civil and administrative cases of first instance as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, applications for the reconsideration of conduct preservation rulings, reconsideration of fines or detention decisions, and extension of trial periods, among others; and
4. such other cases as the SPC deems necessary to be heard by the Intellectual Property Court.

Photo by Diego Jimenez on Unsplash

Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team

Save as PDF