On April 8, 2024 the Shanghai Hongkou District People’s Court announced the sentencing of three defendants for the crime of of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks, specifically, Maotai, a brand of baijiu, the national liquor of China. As of January 2022, the police had seized more than 200 bottles of the counterfeit Maotai with a total value of over 500,000 RMB at two stores.
Author: Aaron Wininger
Aaron Wininger is a Principal and Director of the China Intellectual Property at Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner.
China’s National Intellectual Property Administration Releases 2024 Budget
On March 26, 2024, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration released its 2024 budget (国家知识产权局2024年部门预算). Highlights includes 5.76 billion RMB (~$700 million USD) for patent acceptance and approval; CNIPA expects to examine over 2.026 million patent applications with an examination period of less than 16 months; and total new applications (including invention and utility model applications) is expected to be equal or greater than 4.79 million applications.
China’s Supreme People’s Court Releases Summary of IP Judgements for 2023
On February 23, 2024 China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the Supreme People’s Court Summary of Intellectual Property Court Judgments (2023) (最高人民法院知识产权法庭裁判要旨摘要(2023)). Per the SPC, the summary was formed “to highlight the judicial concepts, trial ideas, and adjudicative methods of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court in technical intellectual property rights and monopoly cases.” The Tribunal selected 96 cases from the 4,562 cases concluded in 2023, and summarized 104 key points as follows.
China International Patent Filings Down 0.6% in 2023 But Maintains Lead as Top Filer
According to data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on March 7, 2024, China filed 69,610 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in 2023 – a small decrease of 0.6% from the previous year. This is the first year-on-year decrease from China since 2002. The United States came in second with 55,678 applications, which represents a 5.3% drop on 2022.