The Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Examining Act Preservation Cases of Intellectual Property Disputes were promulgated on 12 Dec. 2018 and entered into force on 1 Jan. 2019.

There are 21 articles in total, which aim to provide a uniform standard of law application for the court to examine act preservation cases of intellectual property disputes.

The key points are as follows:

1.For cases that may be difficult to be enforced or cause other damages to the parties due to the actions of one of the parties or other reasons, the court may, upon the application of the other party, order or prohibit certain acts of one party. (Refer to Article 100 and Article 101 of the Civil Procedure Law)

2.The parties to an intellectual property dispute shall apply for act preservation before the judgment, ruling or arbitration award takes effect.

3.When applying to the court for act preservation, the applicant shall submit an application and corresponding evidence.

4.If the applicant applies for act preservation, they shall provide guarantee according to the law. The amount of guarantee provided by the applicant shall be equal to the losses that the respondent may suffer from the enforcement of the preservation measures.

5.The party concerned may apply for reconsideration if he/she refuses to accept the ruling of preservation.

6.The court should consider the following factors when examining the application for act preservation:

(1) Whether the applicant’s claim has factual and legal basis, including whether the validity of the intellectual property rights claimed is stable;

(2) Whether it will cause irreparable damage to the legitimate rights and interests of the applicant or make it difficult to enforce the judgment of the case if the act preservation measures are not adopted;

(3) Whether the damage to the applicant caused by the failure to take the act preservation measures exceeds the damage caused to the respondent by doing so;

(4) Whether the adoption of act preservation measures damages the public interest.