China Sets Up IP Tribunals in Intermediate Courts of Various Chinese Cities
Recently six intellectual property tribunals were created within the intermediate courts in various cities in China, namely, Hefei, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Jinan, and Qingdao. Earlier this year in January and February, four IP tribunals have been created within the intermediate courts of Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu.
Like the pioneering Chinese IP courts set up in 2014, these IP tribunals are at the intermediate level in the hierarchy of Chinese courts. And they exercise cross-regional jurisdiction, either over the entire provinces where the respective intermediate courts are located or over multiple cities within relevant provinces, hearing IP cases involving such areas as patents, trade secrets, computer software, plant varieties, integrated circuit layout designs, protection of well-known trademarks, and anti-monopoly.
The IP tribunals were set up with a view to implementing further the national policy of specialised IP adjudication and promoting "three- in-one" trial of civil, administrative and criminal cases involving IP rights.
