According to a joint decision of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the Austrian Patent Office, the China-Austria Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot project will be extended for another five years from March 1, 2021, until February 28, 2026. The PPH enables accelerated examination of Chinese patent applications based on an allowance of an earlier-examined patent application. The relevant requirements and procedures for submitting PPH requests in the two offices remain unchanged. The China-Austria (regional) PPH pilot program …
Category: New Law, Rule or Implementing Regulation
China Issues Draft “Measures Regarding the Regulation of Patent Applications” to Crack Down on ‘Abnormal’ Patent Applications
On February 10, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the Measures on Regulating Patent Applications (Draft for Comment) (关于规范申请专利行为的办法(征求意见稿)). The draft defines abnormal (read junk) patent applications, related behaviors and the penalties for these behaviors. Apparently, CNIPA does not actually want comments because these draft measures were released right before the week-long Chinese New Year holiday and CNIPA is providing a very short period to submit comments – 16 days. These measures and the concurrent elimination of …
China’s Patent Office Releases Draft Measures for Patent Linkage Administrative Adjudication
On February 9, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the Administrative Ruling Measures for the Early Resolution Mechanism for Drug Patent Disputes (Draft for Solicitation of Comments) (药品专利纠纷早期解决机制行政裁决办法（征求意见稿)). This follows on the drafts of the Supreme People’s Court Patent Linkage Litigation Regulations and the joint National Medical Products Administration and CNIPA’s Implementing Measures for Drug Patent Dispute Early Resolution Mechanism issued last year. Patent linkage was introduced in Article 76 of China’s amended Patent Law to take …
China’s National People’s Congress Passes Amended Criminal Law Adding an Economic Espionage Article and Increasing Prison Time for Intellectual Property Crimes
On December 26, 2020, the Twenty-Fourth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress of China voted to pass the “Amendment to the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China (11)” (中华人民共和国刑法修正案（十一）), which will go into effect on March 1, 2021. The Criminal Law includes several articles for intellectual property crime and the amendments increase the maximum sentencing term. The amendments also add a new article somewhat similar to the US’ Economic Espionage Act potentially in …