Per Order of the State Administration of Market Regulation No. 44 entitled Measures for the Administration of Lists of Serious Illegal and Dishonest Acts Subject to Market Regulation (市场监督管理严重违法失信名单管理办法), effective September 1, 2021, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) will establish a list of untrustworthy entities that have intentionally infringed intellectual property , misappropriated trade secrets, committed unfair competition (frequently a cause of action in trademark infringement cases), filed abnormal (irregular) patent applications, maliciously submitted trademark applications (e.g., for …
Author: Aaron Wininger
Aaron Wininger is a Principal and Director of the China Intellectual Property at Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner.
China’s Supreme People’s Court Rules Utility Model Patent Unenforceable if Corresponding Invention Patent Application Fails to Grants
In a decision released by the Intellectual Tribunal of China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) on July 23, 2021, the SPC explained that a granted utility model patent may be unenforceable when a corresponding invention patent application was rejected during substantive examination. The plaintiff had filed both utility model and invention patent applications on the same day for the same invention. While the utility model granted, the invention patent application was rejected in substantive examination for lacking novelty and inventiveness.
Criminal Arrests for Intellectual Property Crimes in China Up 99% in H1 2021
According to data (最高检发布上半年全国检察机关主要办案数据) released by China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) on July 25, 2021, From January to June 2021, procuratorial authorities across the country approved the arrest of 4,286 suspected IPR infringement criminals, up by 99% year on year; prosecution of 6,017 persons, up by 12.6% year on year, non-prosecution of 540 persons, non-prosecution rate of 8.2%, down by 2.6 percentage points year on year. The criminal charges involved in the prosecution case were mainly the crimes of counterfeiting registered …
China’s New Patent Linkage System: A Guide for Foreign Chinese Patent Holders
This article originally appeared in IP Watchdog here. In compliance with the Phase One Trade Agreement, China has implemented a patent linkage system in their amended patent law, which became effective June 1, 2021 (Article 76 of the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China (2020)). The Chinese patent linkage system prevents marketing approval of generic drugs until after the expiration of patents covering the drugs or uses. Specifically, the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of the National Medical Products Administration …