China has recently established IP specialist courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong that are planned to be operative within the end of 2014. There is also stated in the government blueprint that the outcomes of this establishment will be monitored by the Supreme People’s Court and reported in detail to the National People’s Congress in three years. The creation of a Chinese Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) judicial body is not brand new; in the 90s judges and academics widely stood in favour of this idea. After years of heavy research the government decided to drop the project claiming that it would have brought excessive changes to the various court organisation legislations and it would have put political capital through the mill. Nonetheless the past years have seen lively discussions intensify and the new bill passed. Specialists advocate that this is a strong sign of government pro-IP policy and they hope this path will open the door to a general overhaul of Chinese judicial system. These expectations might need to be reshaped in case some disappointing aspects of the current reform expand their impact. Indeed, Chinese IP courts have been introduced at the intermediate level with no powers to pass final sentences. The possibility that (non-specialised) higher courts could reverse what previously declared appears to contradict the same objective of establishing special courts with the aim of ensuring alignment on this complex topic. In any event, there’s no doubt China has a growing interest to enforce IP policy; it has indeed launched pilot projects around the country in order to increase qualified support staff for judges, improve budgeting and effectively grant judges independence. The establishment of the IP specialist courts is consequently warmly welcomed, appearing to be the first sign of a large-scale implementation of these local programmes and the new litigation trends expected to take place are: considerably increased damages against IP infringers, more assertive preliminary injunctions and evidence preservation measures in trade secret cases. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project Monday, 13 October 2014 (Source: Managing Intellectual Property) This news has been realized by gLAWcal—Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development in collaboration with the University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy and the University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy which are both beneficiaries of the European Union Research Executive Agency IRSES Project “Liberalism in Between Europe And China” (LIBEAC) coordinated by Aix-Marseille University (CEPERC). This work has been realized in the framework of Workpackages 4, coordinated by University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy.