Examining the first case of Beijing Intellectual Property Court

Recently nothing in the intellectual property (IP) industry has been more eye-catching than the news about IP courts. As China’s first and most important IP court, Beijing IP Court launched a series of initiatives with weathervane significance. Let’s take its first case as the starting point to explore the rich connotations of these initiatives.

Elimination of local protectionism and inter-region jurisdiction is the direction of trend of judicial reform. Beijing IP Court’s first case is a patent administrative suit where Wecome Medicine Industry sued the Patent Re-examination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), with Huaihua Zhenghao Pharmaceutical as the third party. This case involves patent grant and affirmation, reflecting the special characteristics of Beijing IP Court.

Established as an intermediate court, Beijing IP court has exclusive jurisdiction over cases in the areas of patents, trademarks, administrative authorisation, and patent grant and affirmation, which fall within the scope of its primary functions. It serves as the court of first instance for civil and administrative cases in the areas of patents, new plant species, integrated circuit design, technical secrets, computer software civil and administrative cases (collectively known as technology cases), and determination of well-known trademarks within the municipality of Beijing, as well as hears IP cases appealed from the municipality’s basic courts.

Wang Yadong is the executive partner and Han Yufeng is an IP counsel at Run Ming Law Office