The Supreme People's Court commenced its first online mobile hearing on Feb 25 when its intellectual property rights court conducted remote video inquiries involving parties scattering in different places.

Through the top court's "mobile micro court" platform, the Intellectual Property Court made inquiries of attorney agents who were separately located in Shanghai municipality Zhejiang and Anhui provinces about two jurisdiction-related appeals.

The court made the decision to conduct video inquiries after obtaining the consent of all the agents who were either unable to return to their offices or under home quarantine due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

All involved parties had logged into the "mobile micro court" app to get familiar with it the day before the inquiries.

To start with, the court completed the service of relevant court documents while the agents submitted their identity certificates via the app.

During the inquiries, judges and parties all appeared on the screens of their mobile phones in real time. At the end of the inquiries, parties signed the inquiry transcripts online.

The adoption of the platform demonstrates part of the top court's effort to coordinate epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development.