China’s National People’s Congress Approves Amended Patent Law

Posted on Categories New Law, Rule or Implementing Regulation, Patents

Per news reports from China’s Legal Daily and Xinhua, the 22nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress completed the revision of the Patent Law on October 17, 2020.  The newly amended patent law will come into effect on June 1, 2021.  As of writing, the text of the amended patent law has not been released so it is unknown exactly what changes have been made from the most recent draft for comments.  However, the reports …

Beijing Fines Alibaba 100,000 RMB for Malicious Trademark Filings

Posted on Categories Trademarks

The Beijing Chaoyang District Market Supervision Administration  (SAMR) recently published 京朝市监工罚(2020)230号, which fined Alibaba Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. for attempting to register multiple coronavirus-related trademarks in China on behalf of several applicants. Alibaba is the largest e-commerce platform in China and the #1 e-commerce platform in the world based on gross merchandise value.  Alibaba was acting as a trademark agent knowingly (or should have known) in violation of circumstances specified in Articles 19 paragraph 3 and 68 paragraph 1(3) of …

Chinese Patent Prosecution Flow

Posted on Categories Patents

Update: The 15-day mail delay used in calculating deadlines will be removed effective January 20, 2024 in electronically filed (i.e., most) patent applications. During prosecution of a Chinese invention patent application (as distinct from a utility model application), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) will issue over 10 notices over the typical course of the prosecution process.  Most of these notices require responses with varying deadlines, which will be discussed further below.  

China Releases Report on Development Status of the National Patent Agency Industry (2019)

Posted on Categories Patents

On September 30, 2020, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released a report on the Development Status of the National Patent Agency Industry (2019) (全国专利代理行业发展状况(2019年)). 2019 highlights include China having 2,691 patent agencies compared to 796 agencies in 2010; 20,192 practicing patent agents compared to 6,437 in 2010; and 43,702 people registered for the patent agent qualification examination with 5,381 people passing.