During the meeting of National People's Congress of China on October 26, 2018, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) of China was approved to establish its own intellectual property division from January 1, 2019 onward.
The decision generally says that parties who do not agree with the first instance decision related to cases of invention patent or utility model patent could appeal to the SPC directly. This is distinct from the current situation where the appeal can only be submitted to the High Court.
In view of the above, the establishment of IP division by SPC means that the trials related to invention and utility model patent will be centralized at the SPC during the second trial. Any appeals against the decision of first instance will no longer be tried by the High Court.
The key objective of this change is to solve the problem of discrepancy of different courts in interpreting the patent law, to improve the quality and efficiency of the trial procedure, and to strengthen the patent protection and eventually inspire more innovations on technologies.
The SPC's intellectual property division will be established for a testing period of 3 years. After that, the SPC is required to make a full report to the standing committee of the National People's Congress.
