1. Intellectual Property Tribunals to Be Established in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou

On 1 September 2014, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved the Decision to Establish Intellectual Property Tribunals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The Decision stipulates that the Supreme People’s Court should be entitled to set up intellectual property tribunals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou by taking into account types and numbers of intellectual property cases. Such tribunals govern first-instance civil and administrative intellectual property litigation cases relating to such technically demanding issues as patents, new species of plants, layout designs of integrated circuits, confidential know-hows, etc. and have the right to decide on any appeal against first-instance judgment or verdict by a local lower-level people’s court on civil and administrative intellectual property cases relating to copyrights, trademarks, etc.