The Supreme People's Court will allow electronic evidence, such as mobile phone messages, e-mails, micro-blogging and online chat records in civil lawsuits, including intellectual property suits. Cases involving electronic messages have been on the rise in recent years and tend to be complex. Most of the cases involved marriage, property and debt, housing and labour disputes, as well as intellectual property disputes. However, electronic files and information were not previously identified by the courts as evidence, which greatly slowed the trial process and damaged the legitimate rights of the parties. Thus, the recent Amendments to the Civil Procedure Law of PRC will allow electronic files to be used as evidence in civil lawsuits. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project Thursday, 5 February2015 (Source: China Daily)