Building a state-level intellectual property rights appeals mechanism will help protect innovation, create a fair and convenient business environment and unify application of law in patent cases, President of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) Zhou Qiang said on October 22. A draft proposal on patent-related litigation procedures was proposed recently by the SPC. Zhou delivered an explanatory speech providing detailed information about the draft at the sixth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress Standing Committee. According to Zhou, intellectual property cases in China mainly cover fields such as patents, trademarks, or copyright, while patents are of three types -- invention, utility models and appearance design. The SPC will issue judicial interpretation to further clarify the new tribunal's jurisdiction, he said. Patent-related civil and administrative cases with high technical characteristics are heard in the first instance by the intermediate people's court. Parties may appeal to the IPR Tribunal of the SPC against the first result. To date, more than ten countries have set up IPR courts and all adopt the same mode of supreme court trials, which strengthens intellectual property protection and unifies the application of law.

Source: english.court.gov.cn