The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) has announced amended Patent Examination Guidelines effective February 1, 2020. The amended guidelines add a Section 6 to Chapter IX of Part Two of the Patent Examination Guidelines, which covers provisions for the examination of invention patent applications that claim mathematical limitations and business methods. The amendments are made for the special nature of examination of patent applications related to artificial intelligence, “Internet +”, big data, and blockchain.
Category: New Law, Rule or Implementing Regulation
CNIPA Announces Administrative Measures for Collective Patent Examination
The Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recently issued Administrative Measures of Collective Patent Examination (pilot) (专利申请集中审查管理办法（试行). The new measures allow for the collective examination of patent applications related to the same technology by the same applicant, thereby potentially expediting examination of groups of patent application and improving consistency of examination of the group applications.
Hong Kong, PRC Launches New Patent System Effective December 19, 2019
Effective December 19, 2019, Hong Kong will launch a new patent system that includes a new “original grant patent” (OGP), substantive examination for short term patents (STPs), and maintains the current re-registration system based on patents from China (CN), the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Patent Office (EPO) that designate the United Kingdom. The new patent system is based on the Patents (Amendment) Ordinance 2016 passed on June 10, 2016 and Patents (General) (Amendment) Rules 2019 issued on March …
China National IP Administration (CNIPA) Extends Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program with Iceland and Egypt
CNIPA has extended the PPH pilot program with both Iceland and Egypt for 5 years each through June 30 2024. The China-Iceland PPH pilot was launched on July 1, 2014 and was extended for the first time on July 1, 2016 for a period of three years until June 30, 2019 while the China-Egypt PPH pilot was launched on July 1, 2017 for a period of two years until June 30, 2019. While the US has a PPH with Iceland, …