China’s Supreme People’s Court published on September 11, 2020 (effective September 12) the Provisions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Administrative Cases Concerning Patent Grant and Confirmation (1) (最高人民法院关于审理专利授权确权行政案件适用法律若干问题的规定（一）). The provisions clarify administrative litigation issues for Patent Reexamination Board decisions – both invalidations of granted patents and reexamination of finally rejected patent applications (similar to patent application appeals at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office).
Category: Design Patent
China’s Patent Office Invalidates Chinese Shoe Design Patent Using the ASICS Stripes Trademark
As first reported by 汇知杰, the Reexamination and Invalidation Department of the China National Intellectual Property Office (PRB) has invalidated a Chinese design patent for an athletic shoe that uses ASICS Corporation’s trademarked stripes logo. Competitor Qiaodan Sports Co. Ltd. (notorious for using Michael Jordan’s Chinese name as their company name and in trademarks, etc.) filed design patent application 201430367626.7 on September 29, 2014, which was granted on April 8, 2015. ASICS filed a petition to invalidate the patent on …
China Releases Draft Amended Patent Law for Comment
China’s National People’s Congress has released Amendments to the Patent Law (Second Review Draft) for comment on July 3, 2020. Comments are due August 16, 2020. The draft amendment to China’s patent law will significantly increase damages by introducing punitive damages, raising the statutory damages, and increasing the statute of limitations. Major amendments to the patent law focus on designs, damages, patent term adjustments, patent term extensions and patent linkage.
China’s Supreme People’s Court Releases Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases for 2019
On April 21, 2020, China’s Supreme People’s Court released a list of the top 10 intellectual property law cases of 2019. The cases cover patent (invention and design), trademark, copyright, unfair competition and criminal trademark law. Cases in the list were adjudicated by Courts spread over China and at different appeal levels.