On January 20, 2022, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the 14th Five-Year Plan for Patent and Trademark Examination (专利和商标审查“十四五”规划). The Plan specifies development goals and indicator to reach by 2025. Of particular note for patent practitioners is the goal to reduce the patent examination cycle from an average of 20 months to 15 months and the potential adding of a preliminary examination for inventiveness in utility models.
Category: Patents
Foreign Patent Firms Can Now Open Representative Offices in China
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the Administrative Measures for the Establishment of Resident Representative Offices in China by Foreign Patent Agencies (外国专利代理机构在华设立常驻代表机构管理办法) on January 11, 2022 allowing foreign patent firms to open representative offices in China effective immediately. However, foreign patent firms’ representative offices will not be able to prosecute Chinese patent applications.
Chinese Invention Patent and Utility Model Grants Both Up 31% in 2021
At the National Meeting of Directors of Intellectual Property Offices held on January 6, 2022, China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) Director Shen Changyu released some initial data on 2021 intellectual property grants. Specifically, In 2021, the quantity and quality of intellectual property development indicators have both increased. In terms of creativity, 696,000 invention patents, 3.120 million utility models, and 786,000 designs were authorized, and the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people in my country (excluding Hong Kong, …
CNIPA’s draft Patent Examination Guidelines – what is coming down the pipeline?
This article originally appeared in IAM here. By Aaron Wininger, Austin Chang and Carol Wininger On 3 August 2021 the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released its Draft Revised Patent Examination Guidelines. These update CNIPA’s current guidelines based on the newly amended Patent Law, which came into effect on 1 June 2021. The guidelines, which are somewhat analogous to the USPTO Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, detail important changes to Chinese patent law. They suggest that in the near future, CNIPA may …