According to a recent notification from the Supreme People’s Court related to the trial of intellectual property cases, the higher people’s court in each province shall be the first instance court for cases the value of which is more than 200 million RMB and one of the concerned party does not reside in the same jurisdiction. The higher people’s court is also responsible for first-instance IP cases relating to foreign parties, parties from Hong Kong or Macao.
The intermediate people’s courts are also responsible for first-instance IP cases. With regard to the preliminary courts, they should be authorized by the Supreme Court to handle IP cases as the first instance courts if the case value is more than 5 million RMB or if the value is between 5 million and 10 million and all concerned parties reside in the same jurisdiction where they belong to.
With regard to complicated, new or other IP cases of general applicable law, the higher level court may, on its own or upon request, decide whether they take the case or not.
In terms of first-instance trial for disputes relating to patent, plant varieties, recognition of well-known marks and anti-trust cases, the special rules formulated by the Supreme People’s Court should be complied.
