China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the Guidelines for Trademark Examination and Trial (商标审查审理指南) on November 22, 2021, effective January 1, 2022. The Guidelines, which are somewhat analogous to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure, explains the Trademark Law’s Article 4, which states, in part, “malicious trademark registration applications that are not intended for use shall be rejected” by providing 10 factors to identify malicious applications. These new Guidelines and other measures, such …
Category: New Law, Rule or Implementing Regulation
China to Revoke Patent Agencies’ Licenses for Filing Abnormal Patent Applications
On November 10, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the Notice of the CNIPA on Further Severely Cracking Down on Abnormal Patent Application Agency Acts (国家知识产权局关于进一步严厉打击非正常专利申请代理行为的通知). CNIPA will halt new business intake or even revoke licenses of patent agencies that file relatively large amounts of abnormal (also translated as irregular) patent applications. Previously, Chinese patent agencies have been warned and fined such as a Shenzhen firm that was recently fined 50,000 RMB for filing a total of …
Beijing Intellectual Property Court Accepts China’s First Drug Patent Linkage Litigation Case
On November 10, 2021, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court announced that it accepted its first drug patent linkage litigation case. In contrast, an alternative patent linkage adjudication mechanism seems more popular with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announcing that as of October 27, 2021 they had accepted 12 cases. China 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 …
China’s Sanya City Issues New Patent Subsidy Measures Despite CNIPA’s Push to End Them
On November 8, 2021, the city of Sanya in Hainan publicized the new Sanya City Intellectual Property Funding Management Measures (三亚市知识产权资助金管理办法) effective December 1, 2021. This is despite the China National Intellectual Property Administration‘s (CNIPA) push to end all patent subsidies by 2025 as announced in the Notice of the CNIPA on Further Strictly Regulating Patent Application Behavior. Sanya will grant up to 300,000 RMB (~47 thousand USD) for trademarks and up to 500,000 RMB for patents.