Abstract

In the prevailing trend of parallel litigation regarding standard essential patents (SEPs), the amendment to the foreign-related provisions of the P.R.C. Civil Procedure Rules in 2023 aims to expand the jurisdiction of the People’s Courts over foreign-related cases to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests. This study estimates the international impact of the new rules on foreign SEP stakeholders, based on a survey among them. Its findings suggest that China’s civil procedure system with the 2023 Amendment has enormous potential, even though it still cannot completely alleviate the concerns of international comity and procedural fairness of foreign SEP stakeholders. To effectively stimulate this potential, the next move in developing foreign-related civil procedure rules should continuously strengthen the transparency of judgments and external publicity. People’s Courts and judges should adopt a conservative and prudent attitude in implementing foreign-related jurisdiction on cases involved in parallel litigations, considering the long-term impact on the international community and public interests, and restricting the application frequency of foreign-related jurisdiction to hamper forum shopping activities.

Keywords: Foreign-Related Civil Procedure Rules, Implication Challenges and Suggestions, International Comity, Procedural Justice, Forum Shopping