In order to further promote the division of complex and simple intellectual property cases, effectively give play to the advantages of small claims procedure, respond to the demand for right relief and incentive innovation efficiently and conveniently, and improve the efficiency of judicial protection of intellectual property rights, the provincial court recently formulated the Guidelines for the Application of Small Claims Procedure to Intellectual Property Civil Cases (for Trial Implementation), with the specific contents as follows:
one General Requirements The application of small claims procedure in the trial of intellectual property civil cases should be based on simplifying the civil procedure, effectively reducing the litigants' litigation burden, and comprehensively improving the quality and efficiency of intellectual property trials.
The small claims procedure shall be applied to cases that meet the statutory application conditions; For cases that meet the agreed application conditions, the parties shall be actively guided to choose the application.
two [Scope of Application] The following simple intellectual property civil cases with clear facts, clear rights and obligations, little dispute, and the subject amount of less than 50% of the average annual salary of employees in Jiangsu Province in the previous year shall be heard by small claims procedure, and the first instance shall be final. If the target amount exceeds 50% of the average annual salary of the employees in Jiangsu Province in the previous year but is less than twice, the parties may agree to apply the small claims procedure.
(1) Cases of infringement of copyright of photographic, artistic, musical or written works with clear ownership and facts;
(2) Cases of trademark infringement with clear ownership and facts;
(3) Unfair competition cases with clear facts and clear responsibilities;
(4) Intellectual property contract cases with clear facts and clear rights and obligations (excluding technology contract cases);
(5) Other simple intellectual property civil cases.
three [Exclusions apply] Except for the circumstances where the small claims procedure is not applicable as stipulated in Article 166 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Civil Procedure Law), the following civil cases of intellectual property rights are not applicable to the small claims procedure:
(1) Civil cases involving technical intellectual property;
(2) Cases involving disputes over the ownership of intellectual property rights;
(3) A case may be established in which the parties raise justifiable use, prior use, exhaustion of rights, legal sources and other defenses;
(4) Difficult and complicated cases such as new types or disputes over the application of laws;
(5) Cases involving national interests and social public interests;
(6) Cases involving group disputes or having greater social impact;
(7) Cases where contradictions are likely to intensify;
(8) Other cases that are not suitable for small claims procedure.
four [Program guidance] If the application of small claims procedure is met, the people's court shall send the Notice of Small Claims Procedure together with the notice of accepting the case and the notice of responding to the action to the parties, informing them of the trial organization, the final trial of the first instance, the trial period, the trial method, the payment standard of litigation costs, the right of retrial, procedural objections and other related matters.
five [Procedure Objection] If the parties have objections to the application of the small claims procedure, they shall raise them before the hearing. After examination, if the objection is tenable, other provisions of summary procedure shall be applied or a ruling shall be made to transfer the case to ordinary procedure for trial; If the objection is not tenable, it shall be rejected by a ruling. If an order is made orally, it shall be recorded in writing.
six [Timely filing] In the pre litigation mediation procedure, if the parties clearly express their unwillingness to mediate or fail to mediate successfully for more than 30 days and do not agree to extend the mediation period, and if they meet the conditions for prosecution after review and fall under the circumstances specified in Article 2 of these Guidelines, they shall apply the small claims procedure to file a case and inform the parties in a timely manner.
Before filing a case, if the party concerned, knowing that he/she does not enjoy the personal rights of intellectual property rights, or that the sued infringement has stopped, still deliberately circumvents the application of small claims procedure by filing a claim other than monetary payment, he/she can apply small claims procedure to file a case after clarification.
seven [Simplified delivery] In the application of small claims procedure to hearing intellectual property civil cases, the litigation platform, telephone, SMS, WeChat, fax, e-mail and other instant messaging tools should be fully used to serve, summon the parties, notify witnesses, and keep relevant work records and certificates.
eight [Defense and adduction of evidence] Where a civil case of intellectual property rights that is subject to the small claims procedure is informed by the people's court of the legal consequences of waiving the defense period and the time limit for adducing evidence, and the party clearly expresses its waiver, the court session may be held immediately.
If the parties clearly express that they will not abandon the defense period, the people's court may, on the basis of obtaining their consent, reasonably determine the defense period, which shall not exceed seven days at most.
If the parties expressly express that they will not abandon the time limit for adducing evidence, the parties may agree on the time limit for adducing evidence on their own and obtain the permission of the people's court or the people's court determines the time limit for adducing evidence, which generally does not exceed seven days. If the defendant requests a written defense, the people's court may, on the basis of obtaining his consent, reasonably determine the defense period, which shall not exceed 15 days at most. If a party expresses that there is no need for a time limit for adducing evidence and a time limit for defending his case after he arrives in court, the people's court may hold a hearing immediately.
nine [Objection to jurisdiction] If a party raises a jurisdictional objection to a small claim for intellectual property rights, it shall do so during the period when it submits its defence. If a party raises an objection to jurisdiction at the hearing during the period when he expressly waives his defense, the people's court shall not review it.
The people's court shall make a ruling on the objection to jurisdiction, which shall take effect as soon as it is made.
ten [Trial Mode] A civil case of intellectual property rights that is subject to the small claims procedure shall be tried by a single judge alone, and whether or not to use the court trial without clerk records shall be determined according to the specific circumstances of the case.
eleven [Simplification of court trial] With the consent of the parties concerned, online litigation can be used to try intellectual property civil cases by applying small claims procedure. The court trial procedure can be moderately simplified, and the court investigation and court debate stages can be ignored. In principle, the trial can be concluded at one time.
twelve [Trial by default] Intellectual property civil cases that apply small claims procedure can be heard and judged by default.
The default trial and judgment shall be based on the completion of service according to law. If the notice of the hearing is served in a simple way, and it is not confirmed by the parties or there is no other evidence to prove that the parties have received it, the hearing and judgment shall not be made by default; If electronic service is adopted, it shall be confirmed that effective service has been completed.
thirteen [Trial period] Generally, intellectual property civil cases that apply small claims procedure shall be concluded within two months from the date of filing. If it is necessary to extend it under special circumstances, it may be extended for one month with the approval of the president of the court.
fourteen Program Conversion If the case does not meet the conditions for the application of small claims procedure or is not suitable for the application of small claims procedure due to the application of the parties for adding or changing claims, filing counterclaims, adding parties, or finding that the facts of the case are relatively complex after trial, the case shall be tried or ruled to be transferred to the ordinary procedure according to other provisions of the summary procedure.
fifteen [Mediation first] The principle of mediation priority shall be adhered to when small claims procedure is applied to the trial of intellectual property civil cases. If it is suitable for mediation, the parties shall be organized to mediate in each litigation link as far as possible, or mediation shall be carried out by relying on the mediation organization, so as to achieve the settlement of the case. If mediation fails, a decision shall be made in a timely manner.
sixteen [Document simplification] In the application of small claims procedure to the trial of intellectual property civil cases, the judgment documents can be simplified, mainly recording the basic information of the parties, claims, defense opinions, main facts, brief reasons for the judgment, the basis of the judgment, the main text of the judgment and the notice of the final trial of the first instance.
For cases with simple facts and clear application of the law, the judge can make a decision in court and explain the reasons for the decision. For cases adjudicated in court, if the adjudication process has been completely recorded by audio and video recordings or transcripts of the court trial, the people's court may no longer specify the reasons for the adjudication when making the adjudication documents.
seventeen [Application for retrial] If a party believes that the judgment, ruling or mediation statement of a legally effective small claim case is wrong, he may apply to the original people's court for retrial in accordance with the relevant provisions of the procedure for trial supervision of the Civil Procedure Law.
eighteen [Retrial] With regard to the judgments and rulings in cases where small claims procedure is applicable, the parties concerned shall Article 207 of the Civil Procedure Law If a retrial is applied to the people's court that originally tried the case for the specified reasons, and if the retrial reasons are established after examination, a retrial order shall be made and a collegial panel shall be formed to try the case. The party concerned may not appeal the judgment or order of retrial made.
If a party applies to the people's court of the original trial for retrial on the ground that it should not be tried as a case of small claims, and if the cause for retrial is established after examination, the party shall order a retrial and form a collegial panel to try it. The parties concerned may appeal against the retrial judgment or order made.
nineteen [Performance supervision] For cases with conditions for performance, when delivering judgment documents to the parties, the judges shall strengthen the guidance of performance and urge the obligors to perform actively, timely and comprehensively.
twenty [Half the cost] For cases that apply the small claims procedure, the case acceptance fee shall be paid in half.