There is a hierarchy within the court structure from the top down: The Supreme People’s Courts, the Higher People’s Courts, the Intermediate People’s Courts, and the Basic People’s Courts. The Basic People’s Courts are comprised of more than 3,000 courts at county level. There are more than 300 Intermediate People’s Courts and 31 Higher People’s Courts located in the provinces. Additionally, there are a number of specialized courts, for example those dealing with the People’s Liberation Army, maritime issues and so on.
Supreme People’s Court has original jurisdiction over cases that have been assigned to it by law, or over cases that it decides it should try. It has jurisdiction over appeals or protests from the higher people’s court and special people’s courts
Higher People’s Court has jurisdiction in the first instance in cases assigned by law, or transferred from lower courts; major criminal cases which impact the entire province. Courts also hear cases of appeals or protests against judgments and orders of lower courts.
Intermediate People’s Court hears first instance jurisdiction in some cases, including those transferred to it from basic people’s court; major cases dealing with foreign parties. Also hears appeals and protests
Basic People’s Court is local level courts adjudicate criminal and civil cases of first instance. Excluded from jurisdiction are criminal cases carrying penalty of death or life imprisonment, as well as certain foreign civil cases. The courts can request that more important cases be transferred to a higher court.
Chinese IP court
However, not every courts mentioned before can hear IP related cases.
In order to ensure the quality of trial of IP cases, China adopts the system which comparatively centralized jurisdiction over some technology related cases, such as the patent cases and the new plant variety cases. In recent years, on the basis of this system, China adjusted the arrangement of jurisdiction for IP cases timely. As at end 2011, there were 82 intermediate people’s courts with jurisdiction over patent cases, 45 over plant breeders' rights, 46 over integrated circuit topography and 43 over determination of well-known marks. 119 basic-level courts had jurisdiction over general intellectual property cases, and 3 basic-level courts were designated as pilot sites for adjudicating disputes relating to utility models and industrial design patents.
There are lots of developments made to the Chinese IP trial and court system, such as the Jiangsu High People’s Court had been actively working on trans-regional jurisdiction over intellectual property cases at basic-level courts, such as Suzhou, Wuxi and Nanjing.
In recent years, many district courts in China conducted the experiment of docketing IP civil cases, administrative cases and criminal cases by single trial division.
What’s more, on July 1 of 2009, China Supreme People’s Court unified the trial of disputes over the authorization and attribution of patent right and trademark right to the IP tribunal of the relevant Beijing courts and Supreme People’s Court, so as to further centralize the trial strength and optimize the allocation of trial resources.
IP cases number
Through exercising the function of civil trial, administrative trial and criminal trial, the China people’s courts provide all-around judicial protection for IPR. During the past years, the number of the IP cases docketed by the China people’s courts has been increased steadily.
New filings increased considerably. The local people’s courts have accepted 59,612 new first instance civil intellectual property cases, 38.86% more than 2010; 2,433 first instance administrative intellectual property cases, 6.06% lower than 2010; and 5,707 intellectual property-related criminal case of first instance, 42.96% more than 2010.
In 2011, the number of first instance civil intellectual property cases accepted and concluded by local courts grew by 38.86% and 39.51% to 59,612 and 58,201 respectively.
In 2011, all the courts in China totally docketed all kind IP cases are up on an annual basis.
Among the cases accepted in 2011, 7,819 were patent cases, up 35.16% year-on-year; 12,991 were trademark cases, up 53.56% year-on-year; 35,185 were copyright cases, up 42.34% year-on-year; 557 were technology contract cases, down 16.87% year-on-year; 1137 were competition cases (18 were monopoly-related), up 0.53% year-on-year; and 2,193 were other intellectual property cases, up 11.55% year-on-year.
Among the cases concluded in 2011, 1,321 involved foreign parties, down by 3.51% year-on-year; and 635 involved Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan parties, up 128.42% year-on-year.
In 2011, civil intellectual property cases of second instance accepted and concluded rose 17.17% and 18.18% to 7,642 and 7,659 (including cases carried over from previous years);
For retrial cases (zaishen cases) accepted and concluded grew by 164.86% and 105.50% to 294 and 224; cases accepted and concluded by the Supreme People’s Court totaled 305 and 311 (including cases carried over from previous years), among which 255 were retrial cases and 262 were concluded (including cases carried over from previous years).
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