In order to carry out the spirit of the Opinions on Strengthening Reform and Innovation in the Trial of Intellectual Property Cases issued by theGeneral Office of the CPC and the Office of the State Council, give further play to the role of information in facilitating trial, and explore innovative mechanisms for simplifying and streamlining cases, the SIPC, after thorough research and discussion, has recently issued the Rules of Dealing With Remote Video Hearings (hereinafter referred to as the Rules).

According to the Rules, remote video hearing of intellectual property cases refers to the simultaneous completion of judicial activities such as opening a court session, mediation, hearing, consultation, inquisition and sentencing by participants of the litigation, including the judicial personnel, the litigants and the agents, in court and other remote video venues by means of the Internet, the audio and video transmission, the storage and display on multimedia. The remote video hearing of intellectual property cases shall be conducted with consent of all parties concerned. The trial procedure should strictly abide by the provisions concerning trial activities of the Civil Procedure Law, the Administrative Procedure Law and relevant judicial interpretations. The Rules consist of eighteen articles, which stipulate the applicable conditions, process nodes and operation requirements of remote video hearing. The Rules focus on clarifying the problems of ambiguity, non-standardization and non-uniformity in the practice of remote video hearing, identifying the scope of cases to which remote video hearing applies, the types of cases to which it does not apply, and the detailed coordination and cooperation atthe technical level during trial, and addressingproblems such as the reading and correction of the transcript and the handling of the situation caused by technical failuresduring remote video hearing. In addition, the Rules are accompanied by Notice of Remote Video Hearing, Confirmation of Remote VideoHearing and Application for Listening to Remote VideoHearing. The court will inform thelitigation participants in advance of matters needing attention in remote video hearing, and conduct the trial after the parties confirm their knowledge and consent, so as to protect the legitimate rights of the litigants to litigation and ensure the smooth implementation of the remote video hearing in accordance with the law.

The promulgation of the Rules has laid a normative foundation for the establishment of the remote video hearing mechanism and the exploration of innovative mechanism for simplifying and streamlining cases in the SIPC. The supporting technical upgrades and guarantees have also been put in place, especially the online transmission of evidence displayedduring trial and other documents such as the hearing transcript, andthe online questioning of technical appraisers ensure that the whole process of trial is traced and that the remote video hearing mechanism can operate efficiently according to law. The Rules will bring positive social and judicial effects by innovating the way of trial and exploring quick trial of simple cases. It can not only further standardize the trial activities, ensure the openness and transparency of remote video hearing, but also save the parties' costs of litigation, save judicial resources and improve the efficiency of court trials, thereby accelerating the modernization of trial system and trial capability of intellectual property cases.