On April 16, 2020, the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People’s Court (“the IP Court”) released its first annual report (2019).  The IP Court was officially established in January 1^st, 2019 and became the specialized IP court at the highest level in China. It deals with appeals on patent infringement and prosecution, anti-monopoly and other technology-related IP cases from lower courts across China.

According to the report, the IP Court accepted a total of 1,945 technology-related IP cases and concluded 1,433 in 2019. Chart 1 shows the types of cases.

Further analysis shows that the IP Court concluded a total of 1,174 cases of second instance, among which 731 were affirming the decisions made by the lower courts, 280 were dismissed upon withdraw, 71 were settled, and only 92 were overruled. Chart 2 shows the results of concluded cases.

The average timing for substantive cases of second instance was 73 days, and 29.4 days for cases on procedural challenge of jurisdiction.

Contributed by: Weifeng Sun