Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Division of Jurisdiction over Administrative Cases Involving the Granting and Validity Confirmation of Intellectual Property Rights Such as Patents and Trademarks (2009.7.1)
Judicial Interpretation [2009] No. 39
(Adopted at the 1469th meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People’s Court on June 22, 2009, and coming into force on July 1, 2009)
In order to implement the Outline of National Intellectual Property Strategy, improve the intellectual property trial system and ensure uniformity of judicial standards, the following provisions are hereby formulated on the division of jurisdiction over administrative cases involving the granting and validity confirmation of intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks:
Rule 1 The following first and second instance cases shall be heard by the relevant Intermediate People's Courts of Beijing, Beijing Higher People's Court and the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court:
1) cases for judicial review of patent reexamination decisions and invalidation decisions made by the Patent Reexamination Board of the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council;
2) cases for judicial review of decisions on compulsory patent licensing and rulings on license fees for compulsory patent licensing made by the Patent Administrative Department under the State Council;
3) cases for judicial review of decisions and rulings on trademark review made by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the Administrative Department for Industry and Commerce under the State Council;
4) cases for judicial review of reexamination decisions and revocation decisions on layout designs of integrated circuits made by the Intellectual Property Administrative Department under the State Council;
5) cases for judicial review of decision on involuntary licenses of layout designs of integrated circuits and rulings on license fees thereof made by the Intellectual Property Administrative Department under the State Council;
6) cases for judicial review of decisions on reexamination, invalidation, and name change of new plant varieties made by the Reexamination Board in charge of new plant varieties of the agricultural or forestry administrative departments under the State Council;
7) cases for judicial review of decisions on the implementation of compulsory licenses of new plant varieties and rulings on license fees thereof made by the agricultural or forestry administrative departments under the State Council;
Rule 2 If any party concerned is dissatisfied with an effective judgment or ruling made by People's Court with regard to cases listed in Rule 1, and applies to a higher level of the People's Court for retrial, such retrial cases shall be reviewed and heard by the intellectual property tribunals under the higher People's Courts.
Rule 3 The aforementioned cases heard by the intellectual property tribunals of the Supreme People's Court, the Beijing Higher People's Court, and the relevant intermediate people's courts in Beijing shall be uniformly numbered using the characters "知行" (Zhi Xing) at the time of docketing.
Rule 4 The Provisions shall come into force on July 1, 2009, and in the meantime, the Reply on Division of Jurisdiction over Cases Related to Patents and Trademarks Following the Amendments to the Patent Law and Trademark Law (judicial [2002] No. 117) issued by the Supreme People's Court on May 21, 2002 is repealed.
