Disputes over the right to apply for a patent and disputes over the ownership of a patent belong to patent disputes and belong to the scope of accepting cases by the people's courts. For such disputes, the parties may request the patent administration for mediation or bring a lawsuit directly to the people's court, instead of first requesting the patent administration for handling, then refusing to accept the administrative decision made by the administrative organ and then bringing a lawsuit to the people's court. It is not a prerequisite and a necessary procedure for the patent administrative organ to handle disputes over patent application rights and patent ownership. The people's court shall not refuse to accept a dispute over the right to apply for a patent or a dispute over the ownership of a patent on the grounds that the parties concerned have not requested the patent administration authorities to handle it first.
(2) People's courts with jurisdiction
The jurisdiction of the people's courts over patent ownership disputes shall be implemented in accordance with the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on the Division of Jurisdiction over Patent Cases, that is, the intermediate people's courts where the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government are located can be used as the courts of first instance; Intermediate People's Court of Special Economic Zone; The higher people's courts of all provinces and autonomous regions shall report to the intermediate people's court designated by the Supreme People's Court according to actual needs. The higher people's courts of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government are courts of second instance.
(3) Territorial jurisdiction
For patent ownership dispute cases, the division of regional jurisdiction should be based on the principle of the jurisdiction of the people's court where the defendant is located. Some people think that it is also infringement to apply for a patent for an invention that does not belong to them. Therefore, the competent court can be determined according to the tort. This understanding is obviously inappropriate. When the final ownership of the patent is unclear, there is no infringement at all. Therefore, jurisdiction should not be determined on the basis of tort. Some people think that the patent right is authorized by the patent administrative department of the State Council, and will be changed by the patent administrative department of the State Council after the court confirms the right in the future, so it should be under the jurisdiction of the court where China National Intellectual Property Administration is located. This understanding is also wrong. Because this kind of dispute is purely civil, after the final ownership of the right is clear, the patent administrative department of the State Council also makes the change of the subject of the right according to the application for change put forward by the parties and the effective patent ownership judgment of the court, which has nothing to do with the jurisdiction distribution of the court.
Legal basis: Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China
Article 14 The basic people's courts shall have jurisdiction over administrative cases of first instance.
Article 15 The Intermediate People's Court shall have jurisdiction over the following administrative cases of first instance:
(1) Cases of bringing lawsuits against administrative acts of various departments in the State Council or local people's governments at or above the county level;
(2) Cases handled by the customs;
(3) Major and complicated cases within its jurisdiction;
(4) Cases under the jurisdiction of the Intermediate People's Court as stipulated by other laws.
Article 16 The Higher People's Court shall have jurisdiction over major and complicated administrative cases of first instance within its jurisdiction.
Article 17 the Supreme People's Court has jurisdiction over major and complicated administrative cases of first instance nationwide.