On March 19, 2020, the Supreme People’s Court’s Judicial Interpretation Agenda for 2020 (“2020 Judicial Interpretation Agenda”) 最高人民法院2020年度司法解释立项计划 was discussed and adopted by the SPC Trial Committee at its 1795th meeting on March 9, 2020. In 2020, there are 49 judicial interpretation (JI) projects, divided into two categories: 38 in the Class I Projects, which are required to be completed by the end of 2020; 11 in the Class II Projects, which are required to be completed in the first half of 2021. Generally speaking, the complete catalogue covers various fields such as the enforcement, security, pre-litigation property preservation, civil code, criminal cases, administrative cases and judicial appraisal. There are a number of  IP-related projects, all of which involve the recently established national Intellectual Property Court as a drafting and research partner with other SPC divisions or tribunals, and suggest an increasingly important role for this specialized court in IP policy making:   

Class I Projects (to be completed before the end of 2020) 

16. Several Provisions on Evidence in Civil Procedures of Intellectual Property 关于知识产权民事诉讼证据的若干规定 [ As previously noted, this draft was discussed at a conference hosted by the SPC in Hangzhou in 2018. As Chinese courts experiment with more expanded discovery, evidence preservation and burden of proof reversals, clearer rules regarding the obligations of parties to produce evidence are becoming more critical. ]

 Organizers: Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.3, Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.1, Research Office, Intellectual Property Court 

17. Interpretation of Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Administrative Cases for Patent Validity 关于审理专利授权确权行政案件适用法律若干问题的解释 [Note: A draft was issued for public comment in the summer of 2018; see the earlier blog].

 Organizers: Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.3, Intellectual Property Court 

18. Interpretations of Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Trade Secret Secret Infringement Cases 关于审理侵犯商业秘密纠纷案件适用法律若干问题的解释 [Note: Regarding the Interpretations of Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Trade Secret Infringement Cases, it was also on SPC’s 2019 JI Agenda. As mentioned in Susan Finder’s November 26, 2019, blogpost, this judicial interpretation is flagged in the Party/State Council document (November, 2019) on improving intellectual property rights protection with a goal to “explore and strengthen effective protection of trade secrets, confidential business information and its source code etc. Strengthen criminal justice protection and promote the revision and the amendment and improvement of criminal law and judicial interpretations 探索加强对商业秘密、保密商务信息及其源代码等的有效保护。加强刑事司法保护，推进刑事法律和司法解释的修订完善.”]

Organizers: Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.3, Criminal Adjudication Tribunal No.1, Intellectual Property Court [Note the involvement of the Criminal Adjudication Tribunal is a positive sign for seeking an integrated civil/criminal/administrative enforcement approach] 

19. Provisions on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Pharmaceutical Patent Linkage Dispute Cases 关于审理药品专利链接纠纷案件适用法律若干问题的规定 [Note: this appears consistent with the requirement for adopting a patent linkage system in the Phase 1 IP Agreement.  As we have discussed in a previous blog, the Pharmaceutical-Related Intellectual Property section of the Phase 1 IP Agreement requires China to adopt a patent linkage system, much as was originally contemplated in the CFDA Bulletin 55, but subsequently did not appear in the proposed patent law revisions of late 2018]

(New Project)

Organizers: Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.3, Case Filing Tribunal, Intellectual Property Court  

37. Provisions on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Dispute Cases Arising from Monopolistic Conduct (二) 关于审理因垄断行为引发的民事纠纷案件应用法律若干问题的规定(二) (New Project)

 Organizers: Intellectual Property Court, Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.3

 Class II Projects (to be completed in the first half of 2021)

1. Provisions on Several Issues concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of National Defense Patent Disputes 关于审理国防专利纠纷案件具体应用法律若干问题的规定 (New Project)

Organizers: Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.3, Intellectual Property Court 

2. Interpretation of Several Issues concerning the Application of Punitive Compensation for Intellectual Property Infringement 关于知识产权侵权惩罚性赔偿适用法律若干问题的解释

Organizers: Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.3, Intellectual Property Court  

3. Interpretation of Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Cases Involving Unfair Competition 关于审理不正当竞争民事案件适用法律若干问题的解释 (New Project)

Organizers: Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.3, Intellectual Property Court 

11. Provisions on Legal Issues concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of New Plant Variety Right Infringement Cases 关于审理植物新品种权纠纷案件具体适用法律问题的规定 (New Project)

Organizers: Intellectual Property Court, Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.3

 Judicial interpretations that are not marked as the “New Projects” have already been on the SPC’s Judicial Interpretation Agenda for 2019 or 2018. Several of them, including Several Provisions on Evidence in Civil Procedures of Intellectual Property (2019) and Interpretation of Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Administrative Cases for Patent Authorization and Confirmation (2018 and 2019), were to have been completed by the end of 2019 or 2018. 

Class I Projects JI No. 37 and Class II Projects  Nos. 3 and 11 all have prior effective versions that were issued in 2012 or earlier.  It is likely that these “New Projects” will be in the form of amendments, perhaps significant, to the previous JI’s.