The Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning Intellectual Property Courts were promulgated on 27 Dec. 2018 and entered into force on 1 Jan. 2019.

There are 15 articles in total, which aim to determine the jurisdiction of the intellectual property court (“IP Court”) established by the Supreme People’s Court.

The key points are as follows:

1.The IP Court, located in Beijing, is a permanent judicial organ dispatched by the Supreme People’s Court. The IP Court mainly hears patent and other highly technical intellectual property appeal cases.

2.The IP Court accepts intellectual property cases involving invention patents, utility model patents, new varieties of plants, layout design of integrated circuits, technical secrets, computer software, monopoly and other fields.

3.The IP Court accepts the following cases in the above fields:

(1) Second instance: cases that appeal against judgments and rulings of first-instance civil cases made by high people’s courts and first-instance administrative cases;

(2) Second instance: cases that appeal against judgments and rulings of first-instance civil cases made by intellectual property courts and intermediate people’s courts and first-instance administrative cases;

(3) Second instance: cases that appeal against judgments and rulings of first-instance administrative cases on the confirmation of intellectual property rights made by Beijing Intellectual Property Court;

(4) Adjudication supervision: cases in which the party applies for adjudication supervision against legally effective judgments, rulings or settlement agreements of first instance.

(5) First instance: civil and administrative cases with nationwide influence and/or complex features.