China's New Intellectual Property Mediation Rules

In what appears to be an effort to standardize and professionalize its mediation practices and procedures, China recently enacted new rules governing the mediation of intellectual property disputes. Issued by the Mediation Center of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a national foreign trade body, the new rules create a framework that can guide IP dispute mediation nationwide. It appears that China is hoping that these steps will make it a more popular mediation forum among foreign parties.

Recent Developments

While arbitration has been an increasingly popular mechanism for the resolution of IP disputes in China for at least the last fifteen years, mediation has been slower to gain steam. Less than ten years ago, efforts to modernize China's mediation system led to changes to the country's civil procedure law, including new rules for various industries such as e-commerce. New bodies, such as the Shanghai Commercial Mediation Center