The Beijing IP Court, the first instance court for appeals from
the trade mark and patent offices, announced that pre-hearing
mediation procedures will be officially accepted from August 2021
in administrative trade mark cases. The court has set up a special
team to handle pre-hearing mediations and is now encouraging
parties to reach a settlement or mediate through third parties. If
no settlement can be reached in the pre-hearing mediation, the
court will issue an official notice to accept the case and the case
will proceed in a normal manner. Currently the pre-hearing
mediation procedures only apply to cases where a trade mark has
been refused, that is, where a trade mark applicant and the
Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAD) are the plaintiff
and defendant.
