Supreme Court Released List Of Major Achievements Made By The IP Tribunal To Mark Its Seventh Anniversary

In January 2026, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released a list of major achievements made by the Intellectual Property Tribunal (IPT) to mark its seventh anniversary, comprehensively summarizing the significant results the IPT has made since its establishment in promoting and safeguarding technological innovation, maintaining fair market competition, serving high-level opening-up, and deepening judicial system reform.

The Intellectual Property Tribunal, established on January 1, 2019, is a permanent adjudicatory body dispatched by the SPC and committed to mainly hear appellant cases involving patent and other technology-related intellectual property, and monopoly-related appellant cases nationwide. Over the 7 years, IPT has accepted a total of 24,602 cases and concluded 23,069, with significant progress made in the following aspects:

1. Further Harmonizing Ruling Standards

By centralizing jurisdiction over nationwide technical intellectual property and monopoly appellant cases, the lack of unified ruling standards has been addressed systemically, and concerns about local protectionism are effectively resolved. As a result, many adjudicative rules have been evolved, with 9 cases becoming the guiding cases, 369 cases included in the court case database, and the key points of cases from the previous year published regularly, amounting to 453 cases and 510 items already released. The judicial authority operation mechanism has been improved, maintaining the substantial operation of collegiate panels, holding 558 professional justice meetings, and discussing 3,803 cases. Ensuring consistent rulings to be followed in similar cases, implementing comprehensive case retrieval, and establishing a system for disclosure of related case information. Supervision and guidance of lower-level courts have been strengthened, a mechanism for case-by-case reporting and feedback on the quality and efficiency of first-instance trials, established, and more than 1.52-million-word analysis reports on overturned cases issued annually.

2. Further Improving Trial Quality and Efficiency

Trial management has been continuously strengthened, and various trial quality indicators have been significantly optimized. Adhering to the principles of "correcting rather than issuing" and "mediating wherever possible", the reversal rate for civil substantive cases  such as infringement and  property  rights    in  second-instance  trials  is 20.9%, and the mediation and withdrawal rate 37.7%, both significantly higher than those before the reform and also higher than the national average for civil second-instance cases during the same period. The reversal rate for administrative substantive cases such as patent grant and validity cases in second-instance trials is 7.3%, basically equivalent to those before the reform. The rate of remanding cases for retrial in second-instance trials is far lower than the national level, with only 2 cases in 2024 and zero cases in 2025. The average trial time for cases is shorter than before the reform, with jurisdictional cases in 2025 taking only 25.3 days. Focus has been placed on building litigation integrity, resulting in 13 judicial penalties, 17 referrals of illegal or criminal clues, 3 judicial recommendations, 1 case determined as false litigation, and 8 as malicious litigation.

3. Further Enhancing Judicial Credibility and International Influence

Many cases have had significant impacts both domestically and internationally. Four cases entered the Top Ten Cases Driving the Rule of Law in the New Era, and over 270 cases were published by the Supreme Court as various thematic typical cases. Equal protection of rights for domestic and foreign rights holders is ensured under the law, with 2,546 international-related cases accepted, accounting for 10.3%, growing at an average annual rate of 18.7%. A total of 2,046 cases were concluded, and an increasing number of foreign entities are choosing Chinese courts to resolve their intellectual property disputes. By focusing on international frontiers, active exploration has been carried out on issues such as jurisdiction over global standard-essential patent licensing disputes, injunctions and anti-injunctions, permanent injunctions, and determination of rates.

Domestic and international attention on court work has been high, with the case database of international organizations such as WIPO recording nearly 80 court rulings. Efforts have been made to tell the story of Chinese judicial work well, with court annual reports published in both Chinese and English. Website visits in both Chinese and English have exceeded 620 million, visits to the English website have exceeded 160 million, and the official social media accounts have 130,000 followers.

4. Further Boosting Judicial Protection for Implementation of the National Innovation-Driven Development Strategy and Intellectual Property Strategy

Effectively serving and safeguarding the development of new types of productive forces, 6,745 cases involving strategic emerging industries were accepted, increasing from 17.6% in 2019 to 32.4% in 2025; 6,543 administrative cases on grant, registration and validity of patent and other types of intellectual property rights were accepted, with an average annual growth of 31.8%, of which 3,704 administrative cases involving invention patent grant and validity were accepted, with an average annual growth of 26.0%; 5,354 invention patent infringement cases were accepted, with an average annual growth of 11.5%; 183 cases involving standard essential patents were accepted; 41 pharmaceutical patent cases were accepted; 923 cases involving new plant varieties were accepted, with an average annual growth of 46.2%, and the patentees' win rate reached 90% in 2025. Protection efforts were substantially increased, with 58 cases awarded punitive damages totaling 2.05 billion yuan, averaging over 35 million yuan per case; there were 73 cases with high damages exceeding 10 million yuan, totaling 5.24 billion yuan, averaging nearly 72 million yuan per case. Judicial antitrust function was effectively utilized, and 203 monopoly cases were concluded, of which 66 were found constituting monopoly, covering numerous technology and livelihood areas such as pharmaceuticals, communications, e-commerce, education, construction, and funeral services. The IP tribunal continuously improved the trial rule system, producing many rulings of industry guidance significance. By holding 558 professional justice meetings to discuss 3,803 cases, implementing classified case searches, and disclosing information on related cases, consistency was delivered in handling technology-related intellectual property cases, providing clear judicial frame of references for legal practice.

In the future, the IP tribunal will vigorously promote the reform of the appellate trial mechanism for intellectual property cases at the national level, continuously improve the quality and efficiency of case trials, and provide legal protection for intellectual property and fair competition.

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