· Area of Law： General Provisions on Intellectual Property

· Level of Authority： Decisions on Legal Issues

· Date issued：10-26-2018

· Effective Date：01-01-2019

· Issuing Authority： Standing Committee of the National People's Congress

· Status： Not Yet Effective

Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Several Issues concerning Judicial Procedures for Patent and Other Intellectual Property Cases
(Adopted at the Sixth Session of Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress on October 26, 2018)
For purposes of unifying the trial criteria for intellectual property (IP) cases, further strengthening the judicial protection of IP rights, optimizing the legal environment for technological innovation, and accelerating the implementation of innovation-driven development strategies, the decision is made as follows:
I. Where a party lodges an appeal, if not satisfied with a first-instance judgment or ruling rendered for an IP-related civil case involving professional technologies including a patent for invention, utility model patent, new variety of plants, layout design of integrated circuit, know-how, computer software and monopolistic IP, the Supreme People's Court shall accept and try the appeal.
II. Where a party lodges an appeal, if not satisfied with a first-instance judgment or ruling on an IP-related administrative case involving professional technologies including patent, new variety of plants, layout design of integrated circuit, know-how, computer software and monopolistic IP, the Supreme People's Court shall accept and try the appeal.
III. The retrial claimed or the counter-appeal filed by a party concerned against a legally effective first-instance judgment, ruling or mediation document rendered for any of the above-mentioned cases may be tried by the Supreme People's Court, provided that the trial supervision procedures apply; alternatively, the Supreme People's Court may designate a court at a lower level according to the law to retry the case.
IV. After this Decision is implemented for three years, the Supreme People's Court shall submit a report on the implementation of this Decision to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
V. This Decision shall come into force on January 1, 2019.