The newly-revised Civil Procedure Law of China took effects as of January 1, 2013, in which the new Article 58 stipulated that a lawyer, a near relative of the party, a person recommended by a relevant social organization or a unit to which the party belongs or any other citizen approved by the people's court may be appointed as the party's agent ad litem.

In order to be accommodative the principle of the newly-revised provisions, the All China Patent Attorney Association recently submitted a list of recommendation regarding the members that should be considered as for patent litigation matters to the Supreme People's Court of China. The Supreme People's Court approved the list on January 29, 2013 and released it in July.

Mr Hong Long, Ms. Ruomu Li, Ms. Hongjuan Tian, Ms. Jingjing Wu, Mr. Limin Niu and Ms. Xia Zheng from AFD China were in the list and accordingly appointed and as the first batch of patent litigation attorneys in China.