China's national-level intellectual property court of appeal has commenced operation on 1 January 2019. The new IP court, which operates within the Supreme People's Court of China (SPC), will serve as a unified platform for adjudicating highly technical second-instance IP cases across the country.
Further to the passage in October 2018 of the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Several Issues Concerning Litigation Procedures of Patent and Other Intellectual Property Cases, by which the new IP court was established, the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Intellectual Property Court were issued recently to refine the provisions in the Decision.
According to the Provisions, jurisdiction of the new IP court covers:
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appeals against the judgment or ruling of the higher people's court, intellectual property court, and intermediate people's court in first-instance civil cases involving invention patent, utility model patent, new variety of plants, layout design of integrated circuit, technical secret, computer software, and monopoly;
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appeals against Beijing Intellectual Property Court's judgment or ruling in first-instance administrative cases involving the grant and affirmation of rights in invention patent, utility model patent, design patent, new variety of plants, and layout design of integrated circuit; and
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appeals against the judgment or ruling of the higher people's court, intellectual property court, and intermediate people's court in first-instance administrative cases involving administrative penalties on matters related to invention patent, utility model patent, design patent, new variety of plants, layout design of integrated circuit, technical secret, computer software, and monopoly.
For appeals lodged in respect of the above-mentioned judgment or ruling made before 1 January 2019, the cases will be heard by the immediately higher-instance court to the original-instance court, wheras appeals in respect of judgment or ruling made on 1 January 2019 or thereafter will be heard by the new IP court.
(Source: China Patent Agent (H.K.) Ltd.)
