Judicial Administration Structure for IP Disputes: China
Information provided by:
The Supreme People's Court of China
| Supreme People's Court (SPC) | ||||
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| Intellectual Property Court of the SPC 1 | IPR Division of the SPC 2 | |||
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High People's Courts 3 | |||
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| Beijing IP Court Guangzhou IP Court Shanghai IP Court |
Intermediate People's Courts (Including 21 specialized IP Courts) |
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| Primary People's Courts (Permitted by SPC and HPC) |
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| Common civil and administrative IP Cases: Copyright (excluding software), trademark (excluding well-known trademarks), unfair competition (excluding technological secrets), technical contracts and licenses, domain names Technology-related IP Cases: Patents, new plant varieties, layout-designs of integrated circuits, technological secrets, software, monopoly
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China adopts a "dual-track" protection system of IP rights, which attaches equal importance to administrative and judicial protection. Administrative protection enables administrative departments and law enforcement agencies to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of IP right holders in accordance with law. The National Intellectual Property Administration is in charge of formulating and implementing the national strategy on IP rights, and for protecting IP rights, including by providing guidance for law enforcement work in trademark and patent, resolving IP disputes, and providing rights protection assistance at the local level. Administrative departments may, at the request of a party or in accordance with their functions and mandate, intervene in an IP infringement dispute and order cessation of infringing acts. They may also mediate the determination of damages in infringement cases.
In China, the judicial protection system for IP is primarily based on civil adjudication, with the parallel development of administrative and criminal adjudication over time. In October 1995, the Supreme People's Court established its IPR Division. In August 1993, the Beijing High People's Court and Intermediate People's Courts set up IPR Divisions, followed by other High People's Courts nationwide. From November 2014, IP Courts have been set up in succession in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. Since 2017, 21 specialized IP adjudication organs were established, including in Chengdu, Nanjing, Suzhou and Wuhan.
Under the newly established structure of jurisdiction, the Supreme People's Court plays the leading role, and High People's Courts, Intermediate People's Courts and parts of authorized Primary People's Courts are empowered to have jurisdiction over IP cases. Applying the principles of concentrated jurisdiction for IP cases, rational distribution of jurisdiction, and application of the '3 in 1' adjudication model of jurisdiction for IP cases, China has formed a comprehensive trial system on the basis of territorial jurisdiction, level jurisdiction, and exclusive jurisdiction of IP cases.
In January 2019, the Supreme People's Court set up the Intellectual Property Court, hearing patent, monopoly and other highly technical civil and administrative appeal cases nationwide. With appeals of all technology-related IP cases (excluding design patents) heard by the IP Court of the SPC instead of at the local High People's Courts, a "Leapfrog Appeal" system has been created.
In 2018–2019, the Supreme People's Court issued the following documents:
- Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Examination of Law Application on the Preservation of Acts in Intellectual Property Disputes; and
- Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Technical Investigators' Participation in Legal Proceedings of Intellectual Property Cases.
These provisions provide detailed regulations on the use of preliminary measures in IP cases and technical investigations. The diversified mechanism of technical fact-finding is built up preliminarily through technical investigators, judicial expertise, expert advisors and expert consultation.
In China, IP cases increase significantly year by year. In 2019, the People's Courts at all levels accepted a total of 481,793 cases, including cases of first instance and second instance and applications for retrial. Of these, 475,853 cases were concluded, representing a respective increase of 44.16% and 48.87% year-on-year. In 2019, the Supreme People's Court accepted 2,504 civil IP cases, of which 1,976 cases were concluded; and accepted 1,066 administrative IP cases, and concluded 884 of these cases.