With the establishment of IP courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China have made much progress to improve the IPR legal system. In a recent report on patent enforcement to the National People’s Congress, the Supreme People’s Court is considering to set up IP courts at the national level and to deepen reform of intellectual property trial mode.
China IP courts at national level may have the same status of provincial higher people’s courts while the IP courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are equivalent to prefectural intermediate people’s courts. The unified higher level of IP courts may have jurisdiction to hear the appealing cases from lower level of IP courts so that interpretation and adjudication can be consistent. Currently, losing parties in IP courts at the intermediate level can only appeal to the higher people’s courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. No further details are spelled out in the report.
In terms of IP trial reform, the proposed new features are as follows:
First, trial of IP infringement and IP validity issues might be handled by the same judicial panel like in the US. This is mostly wanted in patent infringement cases. In some patent cases, the judge presiding the infringement case may simply stay the civil litigation if the defendant raises a patent invalidation request at the Patent Reexamination Board (PRB), and it may take quite a long time if the defendant appeal PRB’s decision to the Beijing IP Court for judicial review.
Second, patent invalidation procedure may be reformed. The PRB may be treated as a quasi-judicial organ. If the PRB’s decision is appealed to the Beijing IP Court for judicial review, the Beijing IP Court may directly change the decision substantively. Currently, if the PRB’s administrative decision is overturned, the Beijing IP Court may only cancel the PRB’s decision and order the PRB to make a new decision. However, in some rare cases, PRB may subsequently make the same decision as the canceled decision and the decision can be appealed again, which may become an endless loop and wastes much judicial resources.
Overall, the proposed reforms are still in consideration and may take years to materialize. This clearly demonstrates the emphasis China government is placing on IPR.
