China Is Introducing A Centralized Appeal Venue For Patent And Similar Cases

On October 26, 2018, Decisions on Several Issues Concerning the litigation Procedures of Patent and Similar Cases (hereinafter referred to as "Decision") proposed by the Supreme Court was passed during the sixth vote of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress and will take into effect since January 1, 2019.

This means that, the part of IP cases involving technical issues and requiring more expertise will be heard before a specialized IP tribunal of the Supreme Court for the second instance, in place of those high courts of each province. Noting that an IP tribunal for hearing IP retrial cases has already been established within the Supreme Court, the "specialized IP tribunal" shall be a different one and shall be at a lower level in structure.