Abusive jurisdictional objections can delay civil intellectual property cases. The Beijing Intellectual Property Court encountered objections maintained despite their obvious lack of merit, repeated objections and appeals in similar cases, and deliberate service difficulties unrelated to force majeure that prolonged proceedings.
The court hears all second-instance intellectual property jurisdictional objections in Beijing. From its establishment on November 6, 2014 to June 30, 2018, it accepted 44,139 cases, including 3,287 jurisdictional appeals, approximately one-third of second-instance civil cases.
These appeals had grown steadily. Many arose from Beijing’s cultural industries, and disputes over online dissemination rights accounted for more than four-fifths of jurisdictional appeals.
Article 25 of the Supreme People’s Court interpretation on applying the Civil Procedure Law, effective February 4, 2015, provides that the place of an information-network infringement includes the location of the equipment used, while the place where its consequences occur includes the victim’s domicile. Plaintiffs can therefore sue at their own domicile. Previously, jurisdiction in online dissemination disputes was generally linked to the defendant’s domicile or the location of the network server or computer equipment.
To address the increasing caseload and lengthy proceedings, the court introduced an accelerated mechanism in early March 2017. It optimized procedures, allocated work and established a dedicated team with specialized service staff and centralized handling. The team concluded more than 1,500 jurisdictional appeals and reduced the handling period from 27 days to 14 days.
Source: http://ip.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0720/c179663-30160749.html