A specialized collegiate bench for cases in the SHFTZ (China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone) was set up by Shanghai Intellectual Property Court on March 1st. This is an important measure for Shanghai Intellectual Property Court to guarantee the construction of the SHFTZ and promote the creation of a rule of law business environment in the zone, as well as a focus for the court to implement the service to the construction of the science and technology innovation center and the three-year plan. According to statistics, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court accepted a total of 115 IP-related cases of various kinds happening in the zone. The establishment of the collegiate bench is good for giving full play to the professionalized trial functions of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court and better responding to the requirements for protecting intellectual property rights, so as to ensure the fair and effective trial of IP-related cases in the zone and better serve the overall situation of the zone construction. Accordingly, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court issued the Opinions on Establishment of A Collegiate Bench Special for Cases in the SHFTZ, which specified the case-acceptance scope, organization method and management mode of the collegiate bench. The collegiate bench mainly has four characteristics as follows. 1. A professionalized team of judges.The team of judges special for cases in the zone consists of President of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, Presiding Judge, and judges, assistants to judge and clerks appointed by the two tribunals. In specific cases, the collegiate bench is made up of the above personnel and conducts concentrated trial to IP-related civil and administrative cases happening in the zone. 2. Categorized cases accepted. The accepted cases include IP-related civil cases whose domicile of the concerned parties, the place of the tort, the contract performance place or the place of the subject matter of the contract is in the zone, the IP-related cases whose sued administrative action is taken by a special administrative organ in the zone or whose legitimate review of the administrative action involves the application of special laws and regulations of the zone, as well as other IP-related cases concerning the institutional innovation of the zone. 3. Intensive management of trials. The system for timely reporting of the case information, regular sorting and analysis, and summarization of typical cases has established to promote the quality and effect of the trials. By cooperating with the SHFTZ Court of Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court, the trial standards and application of laws have been unified through analysis of similar cases and case studies. 4. Systematic extension of the trial functions. The efforts have been made to strengthen the judicial statistics analysis of the SHFTZ-involved cases and apply individual and similar case judicial advises, white paper on trials and other means to promote the innovative reform of the zone. The efforts have also been made to enhance law publicity concerning the SHFTZ-involved cases to promote the creation of a sound legal environment for the construction of the zone. Last but not the least, the investigation of the legal issues in the zone has been strengthened and the transformation of the investigation results has been enhanced through the reference to the guidance from the SHFTZ IP judicial protection investigation contact point of IP Tribunals of the Supreme People’s Court. By taking advantage of the establishment and operation of the bench, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court will strengthen exploration, accumulate experience, fairly and effectively try the IP-related cases in the zone and strive to create duplicable and promotable practices so as to accumulate experience and practices for setting up a IP judicial protection system that not only meets the requirements for the development of the SHFTZ but also better satisfies the requirements of legalization and internationalization.