The decision was reached during the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) meeting on Friday, the official said on condition of anonymity.
China is the EU's biggest trading partner, and the cases will burden the WTO with a thorny challenge at a time when its dispute settlement system is badly weakened.
Brussels first launched the dispute moves a year ago, and after consultations between the two sides failed it called last month for a WTO panel of experts to weigh in.
China blocked the first requests, but according to WTO rules, second requests are effectively granted automatically.
The Lithuania case is over trade restrictions China has been applying to the EU member state since late 2021 due to Lithuania strengthening ties with Taiwan, which China views as part of its territory.
The EU charges that China has applied discriminatory and coercive measures against exports to or from Lithuania, and against exports from the bloc containing Lithuanian content.
The European Commission has said that China's bans on Lithuanian alcohol, beef, dairy products, logs, peat and wheat on health grounds were not justified.
Beijing has denied taking coercive measures against Lithuania.
On the patents matter, Brussels is challenging decisions made by Chinese courts in August 2020 that barred EU owners of high-tech patents from turning to European Union courts to protect their intellectual property.
The commission said last month that "Chinese manufacturers requested these anti-suit injunctions to pressure patent right holders to grant them cheaper access to European technology".
Beijing's representative told the DSB meeting Friday that China regretted the EU's decision to insist on the panels, adding that it would vigorously defend its measures as legitimate, according to the trade official.
During the meeting, a number of countries, including the United States, Britain, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, India and Brazil, said they reserved their third-party rights to take part in the proceedings.
It can take several years for WTO panels to render their decisions.
Appealing those decisions has been complicated since late 2019, when the WTO Appellate Body, sometimes called the supreme court of world trade, ground to a halt after years of relentless US opposition.
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