Supreme People’s Court Adjusted Standard of Grade Jurisdiction over IPR Civil Cases

On January 28, 2010, the Supreme People’s Court released “Circular on Adjusting Jurisdiction of Local People’s Courts at Different Levels over IPR Civil Cases of First Instance” (hereafter referred to as the Circular). The courts all over the country carried out the adjusted grade jurisdiction standard over IPR civil cases as of February 1, 2010.

According to the Circular, higher people’s courts shall have jurisdiction over the IPR civil cases of first instance in which the amount of the litigation object is not less than RMB 200 million yuan, and over those cases in which the amount of the litigation object is not less than RMB 100 million yuan, while the place where one of the interested parties has his domicile is not within the area under jurisdiction of the courts or the said cases are related to foreign countries, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The intermediate people’s courts shall have jurisdiction over the IPR civil cases of first instance below the standards mentioned above, except for a case which comes under jurisdiction of basic people’s courts having jurisdiction over general IPR civil cases of first instance appointed by the Supreme People’s Court.

The Circular regulates that the said basic people’s courts appointed by the Supreme People’s Court have jurisdiction over the general IPR civil cases of first instance in which the amount of the litigation object is not more than RMB 5 million yuan, and over those cases in which that the amount of the litigation object is not less than RMB 5 million yuan and not more than RMB 10 million yuan and all interested parties’ domiciles are within the jurisdiction area of the higher people’s court or intermediate people’s court which the said basic people’s courts are affiliated with. The specific standards are prescribed by the relevant higher people’s courts and rendered to the Supreme People’s Court for approval.