On February 23, 2024, in honor of the firth anniversary of the establishment of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of China’s Supreme People’s Court (IPC), released a list of Top Ten Influential Cases. The Cases cover various technologies and areas of law including trade secret misappropriation, plant variety infringement, patent linkage and invention patent infringement.
Category: Patents
China’s Supreme People’s Court Clarifies Conditions Needed to Prove Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed in Bad Faith
In a decision decided August 10, 2023 and partially published January 9, 2024, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) clarified when a patent infringement lawsuit is determined to be in bad faith. The Supreme People’s Court held that the following elements should be satisfied for determining an intellectual property rights action is brought in bad faith: (1) the action brought obviously lacks a right basis or factual basis; (2) the plaintiff is aware of the fact; (3) the action has caused …
Huawei U.S. Patent Grants Drop 24% in 2023; BOE Drops Out of the Top 10
Accordingly to analysis by Harrity Patent Analytics, Huawei ranked 10th for US patent grants in 2023, down 3 spots from 2022 with a 24% drop in patent grants. BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. dropped even further to 19th down from 8th in 2022. BOE had a 38% drop in granted US patents. Tencent was 54th this year with an 11% drop in patent grants. Oppo was down 32%. Baidu was up only 1%. Xiaomi was down 7% and didn’t make …
Chinese Utility Model Grants Down 25.5% in 2023, Invention Patent Grants Up 15.4% in Shift from Quantity to Quality
In China’s shift from quantity to quality, 25.5% fewer utility models were granted in 2023 versus 2022. Design patent grants were also down 11.5% according to a January 16, 2024 press conference held by the State Council Information Office. In contrast, invention patent grants were up 15.4%. Invention patent applications are substantively examined while utility models and designs only undergo a preliminary examination. 2024 may show a continuing downward trend for utility models as the amended Patent Examination Guidelines, effective …