Nine kinds of cases relating to patent disputes may be tried by Chinese courts:
1. Disputes over whether the patent should be granted;
2. Disputes over declaring invalidity of a patent or sustaining a patent right;
3. Disputes over compulsory license;
4. Disputes over license fee of compulsory license;
5. Disputes over the fee to use an invention after a patent application is published and before the patent right is granted;
6. Disputes over patent infringement (including patent counterfeiting case which does not constitute a crime);
7. Disputes over assignment contract of patent application right or patent right;
8. Disputes over the proprietorship of the application right and patent right;
9. Disputes over patent license contract.
The jurisdiction of the nine kinds of cases is as follows:
1. For cases included in items 1 to 4 in the above, the Intermediate People's Court of Beijing will be the court of first instance and the High People's Court of Beijing will be the court of appeal.
2. For cases included in items 5 to 8 in the above, the intermediate people's courts located in the city where the governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government and located in the special economic zones will be the court of first instance for cases happened in respective province, autonomous region, municipality or special economic zone. The high people's court of each province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the central government shall be the court of appeal.
3. For cases included in item 9 above, local court at different places will be the court of first instance, and relevant intermediate court will be the court of appeal.
According to the Civil Procedure Law, patent infringement litigation will be tried by the court at the place of infringement or domicile of the defendant. The place of infringement includes the place where the infringement takes place and the place where the result of the infringement occurs. Therefore, when filing patent infringement case, the plaintiff may choose to sue in the court where the infringing products are produced, or in the court where the infringing products are sold.
