On June 29, the Shanghai Higher People's Court issued an announcement on the adjustment of the centralized jurisdiction of intellectual property, administrative and juvenile criminal cases. The reform mainly reduced the jurisdiction of intellectual property cases in the two primary-level courts, the Huangpu District Court and the Minhang District Court.

Intellectual property case
(1) The intellectual property cases in Shanghai courts are subject to a “three-in-one” trial mechanism including civil, administrative and criminal cases.

Among them, intellectual property civil cases include IP civil disputes concerning copyrights, trademark rights, patent rights, technology contracts, trade secrets, new plant varieties and layout designs of integrated circuits, as well as civil disputes involving unfair competition, monopoly, and franchise contracts;

IP administrative cases include administrative disputes brought by parties concerned against administrative agencies involving IPRs such as copyrights, trademark rights and patent rights, unfair competition, and the production and marketing of counterfeit goods;

IP criminal cases include the criminal offences provided in section 1 (Crimes of Producing and Marketing Fake or Substandard Commodities) and section 7 (Crimes of Infringing on Intellectual Property Rights) of Chapter 3 (Crimes of Disrupting the Order of the Socialist Market Economy) of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China.

(2) The IPR cases accepted by the primary-level courts are subject to centralized jurisdiction and are handled by the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court, Xuhui District People’s Court, Yangpu District People’s Court, and Putuo District People’s Court.

The Pudong New Area People's Court has jurisdiction over the first-instance IPR cases in the Pudong New Area. 

The Xuhui District People's Court has jurisdiction over the first-instance IPR cases in Xuhui District, Changning District, Minhang District, Fengxian District, Songjiang District and Jinshan District;

The Yangpu District People's Court has jurisdiction over the first-instance IPR cases in Yangpu District, Huangpu District, Hongkou District, Baoshan District and Chongming District;

The Putuo District People's Court has jurisdiction over the first-instance IPR cases in Putuo District, Jing'an District, Jiading District and Qingpu District.

(3) The jurisdiction scope and level of the IPR civil cases in Shanghai courts shall be implemented in accordance with Hu Gao Fa [2016] No.35 Provisions of the Shanghai High People's Court on Adjusting the Jurisdiction of Courts in Shanghai Municipality over Civil Intellectual Property Right Cases.

(4) Primary-level people's courts shall exercise jurisdiction over first-instance civil IPR cases, brought by involving parties against administrative organs, concerning IPR, unfair competition, production and marketing fake or substandard commodities, etc., excluding those fall under the jurisdiction of intellectual property court.

The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court exercises jurisdiction over the following IPR administrative cases: 1. first-instance administrative cases concerning patents, new plant varieties, integrated circuit layout design, technical secrets, computer software, monopoly, etc. 2. administrative cases of first-instance against administrative misconducts of People’s governments above district level concerning IPR and unfair competition; and 3. cases of appeals against the first-instance civil IPR judgments or rulings rendered by primary-level people's courts.
The Shanghai High People's Court shall exercise jurisdiction over cases of appeals against the first-instance civil judgments or rulings rendered by the intellectual property court.

The jurisdiction over retrial cases of IPR administrative applications shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China. 

(5) Where Primary-level People's Procuratorate files a public prosecution against an IPR criminal case that falls within Para. 1, Article 1 of this Announcement in its jurisdiction area, primary-level court that does not have jurisdiction over such case shall transfer the case to competent court that has said jurisdiction in accordance with Para. 2, Article 1 of this Announcement.

The Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People's Court has jurisdiction over the criminal cases of producing and marketing fake or substandard commodities that could be sentenced to life imprisonment or death penalty as provided in the Section 1, Chapter III of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China.

The Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People's Court has jurisdiction over the following IPR criminal cases as stipulated in Section 7, Chapter III of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China: 1. criminal cases of first instance involving IPR infringements that have significant impact in this city; 2. criminal cases of first instance involving IPR infringement investigated or handled by the Shanghai Public Security Bureau filed a case for investigation or investigation of; and 3. criminal cases of first instance involving IPR infringements that have significant impact in this city and are investigated by Shanghai Water Public Security Bureau, Shanghai Port Public Security Bureau, Shanghai Maritime Public Security Bureau, Yangtze River Shipping Public Security Bureau Shanghai Branch, the International Airport Branch of Shanghai Public Security Bureau, and the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau Urban Rail and the Public Transportation Department; and criminal cases of first instance involving IPR infringements investigated by the public security organs under Shanghai Customs.

The Third Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai Municipality shall handle IPR criminal cases of appeals concluded by primary-level courts and IPR criminal cases whose court judgments are protested by the third branch of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate.

The Shanghai Higher People's Court shall hear IPR criminal appeal cases concluded by the Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People's Court in its jurisdiction and the IPR criminal cases whose court judgements are protested by the Shanghai People's Procuratorate.

Jurisdiction of IPR criminal cases are determined in accordance with Interpretations of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the "Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China".

This announcement has been implemented since July 1, 2018. IPR cases, administrative cases, and criminal cases involving minors that have been accepted by courts before this date shall remain be handled by the accepting courts.