On May 7, 2025, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) published the 2025 Intellectual Property Nation Building Promotion Plan (2025年知识产权强国建设推进计划) authored by the Office of the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference on Building a Powerful Nation of Intellectual Property Rights. The Plan lists the key tasks of 2025 to “accelerate the construction of a powerful intellectual property country.” Some of the key tasks including revising various laws and regulations, including the Trademark Law and issuing new guidelines, such as the Guidelines on …
Category: New Law, Rule or Implementing Regulation
CNIPA Announces Deepening of “Blue Sky” Campaign to Strengthen Supervision of Intellectual Property Law Firms
On May 7, 2025, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the Notice of the State Intellectual Property Office on deepening the “Blue Sky” campaign to strengthen the comprehensive governance of the intellectual property agency industry (国家知识产权局关于深入开展“蓝天”行动 强化知识产权代理行业综合治理的通知). The Blue Sky Campaign is somewhat similar to but more comprehensive than the USPTO’s recent launch of the Patent Fraud Detection and Mitigation Working Group. The Notice states that CNIPA will regulate agency behavior by 1. rectifying the behavior of patent agents …
China Releases Regulations on the Protection of New Plant Varieties
On May 1, 2025, China’s State Council released the Regulations on the Protection of New Plant Varieties (中华人民共和国植物新品种保护条例). Major changes in the Regulations include extending the term of variety rights for woody and vine plants from 20 years to 25 years and for other plants from 15 years to 20 years. Further, preliminary examination should be reduced from 6 months to 3 months. China has been emphasizing new plant varieties infringement this year with these Regulations, a 53 million RMB verdict in a new plant …
China’s National Intellectual Property Administration Releases RFC for Draft Patent Examination Guidelines Targeting Video Codecs
On April 30, 2025, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released a draft amendment for comment of the Patent Examination Guidelines (专利审查指南修改草案 (征求意见)), which is somewhat analogous to the US Patent & Trademark Office’s Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. One of the main proposed changes is the addition of a section tightening examination standards for video codec patent applications. CNIPA explained, in part, that the purpose of the addition was to “provide the right holder with the option of claiming …