Judicial Interpretation [2018] No. 22

Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Intellectual Property Tribunal

(Adopted at the 1756th meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court on December 03, 2018, and coming into force on January 01, 2019)

For the purposes of further unifying the standards for the adjudication of intellectual property cases, equally protecting the lawful rights and interests of various types of market participants in accordance with the law, increasing the judicial protection of intellectual property rights, optimizing the legal environment for scientific and technological innovation, and accelerating the implementation of innovation-driven development strategies, in accordance with the Organic Law of the People's Courts of the People's Republic of China, the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Several Issues concerning Judicial Procedures for Patent and Other Intellectual Property Cases and other legal provisions, and in light of the practical trial work, provisions on the issues concerning the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court are made as follows.

Article 1 The Supreme People's Court shall set up the Intellectual Property Tribunal to mainly try patents and other intellectual property appeal cases with strong technical expertise.
The Intellectual Property Tribunal is a permanent judicial organization dispatched by the Supreme People's Court and is based in Beijing.
The judgments, rulings, mediation documents and decisions made by the Intellectual Property Tribunal are the judgments, rulings, mediation documents and decisions of the Supreme People's Court.

Article 2 The Intellectual Property Tribunal shall try the following cases:
(1) appeal cases against first-instance judgments and rulings made by the Higher People's Court, the Intellectual Property Court, and the Intermediate People's Court on civil cases involving invention patents, utility model patents, new plant varieties, integrated circuit layout designs, technical secrets, computer software, and monopoly;
(2) appeal cases against first-instance judgments and rulings made by the Beijing Intellectual Property Court on administrative cases involving the grant and confirmation of invention patents, utility model patents, design patents, new plant varieties, and integrated circuit layout designs;
(3) appeal cases against first-instance judgments and rulings made by the Higher People's Courts, Intellectual Property Courts, and Intermediate People's Courts on administrative cases involving administrative penalties for invention patents, utility model patents, design patents, new plant varieties, integrated circuit layout designs, technical secrets, computer software, and monopoly;
(4) first-instance civil and administrative cases referred to in Items (1), (2), and (3) of this Article that are major and complex nationwide;
(5) cases of applications for retrial, protest, retrials , etc., which are subject to trial supervision procedures according to the to the law, against the legally effective judgments, rulings, and mediation documents of first-instance cases referred to in Items (1), (2) and (3) of this Article;
(6) cases such as applications for reconsideration and applications for extension of the trial period with respect to the decisions on jurisdiction dispute, imposed fines and detention made by the first-instance cases referred to in Items (1), (2), and (3) of this Article;
(7) other cases that the Supreme People's Court deems should be tried by the Intellectual Property Tribunal.

Article 3 The trial court of the first-instance cases referred to in Items (1), (2), and (3) of Article 2 of these Provisions shall transfer paper and electronic files to the Intellectual Property Tribunal in a timely manner in accordance with regulations.

Article 4 With the consent of the parties, the Intellectual Property Tribunal may serve litigation documents, evidence materials, and judgment documents, etc. through electronic methods such as electronic litigation platforms, the China Judicial Process Information Online, fax, and email.

Article 5 The Intellectual Property Tribunal may organize evidence exchange and convene pretrial conferences, etc. through electronic litigation platforms or online video.

Article 6 The Intellectual Property Tribunal may go to the field or the place where the people's court of the original trial is located to try cases according to the circumstances of the case.

Article 7 The Intellectual Property Tribunal shall take measures such as preservation, and handle cases in accordance with the relevant provisions of the enforcement procedure.

Article 8 The case filing information, members of the collegial panel, trial process, and judgment documents, etc. of the cases tried by the intellectual property courts shall be disclosed to the parties and the public in accordance with the law, and can be queried through electronic litigation platforms and the China Judicial Process Information Online.

Article 9 The judges meeting of the Intellectual Property Tribunal shall be composed of a chief judge, deputy chief judges and several senior judges to discuss major, difficult and complicated cases, etc.

Article 10 The Intellectual Property Court shall enhance the research on the trial work of relevant cases, summarize the judgment standards and trial rules in a timely manner, and guide the trial work of the people's courts at a lower level.

Article 11  Where a provincial People's Procuratorate lodges a protest against a Higher People's Court regarding the legally effective first-instance case judgments, rulings, and mediation documents referred to in Items (1), (2), and (3) of Article 2 of these Provisions made by the Intellectual Property Courts and the Intermediate People's Courts, the Higher People's Court shall inform it that the protest shall be submitted by the Supreme People's Procuratorate to the Supreme People's Court according to law and shall be tried by the Intellectual Property Tribunal.

Article 12  Where the judgments, rulings or decisions of the first-instance cases referred to in Items (1), (2), and (3) of Article 2 of these Provisions were made before January 1, 2019, and the parties file an appeal or apply for reconsideration in accordance with the law, the trial shall be handled by the people's court at the next higher level than the people's court of the original trial.

Article 13  Where the legally effective judgments, rulings, and mediation documents of the first-instance cases referred to in Items (1), (2), and (3) of Article 2 of these Provisions were issued before January 1, 2019, and an application for retrial, protest, or retrial is filed in accordance with the law, the relevant provisions of the "Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" and "Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" shall apply.

Article 14 The Primary People's courts that were approved to accept first-instance civil and administrative cases involving patents, technical secrets, computer software, and monopoly before the implementation of these provisions will no longer accept the above-mentioned cases.

For the cases stipulated in the preceding paragraph that have not been concluded by the Primary People's Court by January 1, 2019, if the parties concerned refuse to accept the judgments or rulings and lodge an appeal in accordance with the law, the trials shall be handled by the people's court at the next higher level.

Article 15    These provisions shall come into force on January 1, 2019. If the judicial interpretations previously issued by the Supreme People’s Court are inconsistent with these regulations, these provisions shall prevail.