On October 22, 2018, a draft of "Decision on Issues Concerning Litigation Procedure of Patent Cases" was submitted to Standing Committee of National People's Congress of China. In addition, according to the Supreme People's Court of China, the Law of the Organization of the People's Courts is being revised.
One big change will be that the Supreme People's Court will directly handle the appeal cases against the decisions of the specialized IP courts and Intermediate People's Courts where most of the first instance IP cases are handled. So far there are only three specialized IP courts in Beijing Shanghai and Guangzhou, respectively. Currently, many second instance (i.e. appeal) IP cases are handled by High People's Courts which have jurisdiction over respective Intermediate People's Courts, in different cities or provinces.
The Supreme People's Court will set up an Intellectual Property Tribunal to hear these IP appeal cases. Such a national level IP Appeal court is most likely to further unify the practice of IP cases across all courts in China and offer more consistent decisions, more predictability and enhanced IP protection across the country.
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