On May 23, 2022, the Beijing Intellectual Property (IP) Court announced for the first time that it had dismissed a trademark case for lack of jurisdiction under the Supreme People’s Court’s new “Several Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Jurisdiction of Civil and Administrative Cases of Intellectual Property Rights of First Instance” released April 21, 2022.  The proper Courts for trademark infringement cases are basic People’s Courts and not the specialized IP Court.  The Beijing IP Court, however, retains jurisdiction over technical IP infringement, such as for invention patents.

The Court explained,

Since the prosecution in this case did not involve the recognition of well-known trademarks, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court has explained the latest provisions on jurisdiction adjustment to the plaintiff at the filing window and guided him to sue at a basic court with jurisdiction, but he insisted on suing in the Beijing Intellectual Property Court.

On May 11, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court issued a ruling of inadmissibility against the plaintiff’s cause of action in accordance with the above-mentioned latest jurisdiction provisions.

The relevant provisions read as follows:

Article 1: Patents for invention, patents for utility models, new varieties of plants, layout design of integrated circuits, technical secrets, ownership of computer software, infringement disputes, and monopoly disputes: Civil and administrative cases of the first instance shall be under the jurisdiction of the intellectual property court, the intermediate people’s court in the place where the people’s Government of a province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government is located and the intermediate people’s court determined by the Supreme People’s court.

Article 2: The ownership of design patent, infringement disputes, and civil and administrative cases of the first instance involving the identification of well-known trademarks shall be under the jurisdiction of the intellectual property court and the intermediate people’s court; with the approval of the Supreme People’s court, they may also be under the jurisdiction of the basic people’s court, except for administrative cases of design patent.

Article 3: Civil and administrative cases of intellectual property rights of the first instance other than those specified in Articles 1 and 2 of these Provisions shall be under the jurisdiction of the basic people’s court determined by the Supreme People’s court.