On June 21, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Letter of Reply from the CNIPA to Recommendation No. 6494 of the Fourth Session of the Thirteenth National People’s Congress (国家知识产权局对十三届全国人大四次会议第6494号建议答复的函) explaining that CNIPA has a fast track channel for patent invalidation cases involved in patent infringement disputes. Currently, Chinese courts will usually not suspend a patent infringement case for a concurrent patent invalidation case.
Category: Patents
Chinese Invention Patent Grants Up 63% in May 2021 YoY
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recently released data indicating that 2021 year-to-date invention patent grants totaled 269,706 invention patents, a 62.4% increase in cumulative grants from January through May 2020. The percentage of patents granted to foreign patentees dropped from 19.5% to 15.7% although the absolute number of patents to foreign patentees increased from 32,389 to 42,286. However, this may overstate the total number of patents granted to true foreigners as some Chinese entities file in the name …
Foreigners Can Now Take the Chinese Patent Bar Examination
On June 10, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Notice of the CNIPA on the Participation of the Patent Agent Qualification Examination by Foreigners in Pilot Areas for Patent Agency (国家知识产权局办公室关于专利代理对外开放试点地区的外国人参加专利代理师资格考试的通知) announcing that foreigners who work or study within the pilot areas of Beijing, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Guangzhou can take the next patent bar examination. This implements last year’s announcement by China’s Ministry of Commerce stating that foreigners that reside in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing (21 …
China’s Supreme People’s Court Clarifies That Defendant May Be Entitled to Attorney Fees and Expenses in IP Litigation
On June 3, 2021 and effective the same day, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued the “Approval of the Supreme People’s Court on the Issue of the Defendant’s Request for Compensation for Reasonable Expenses in Intellectual Property Infringement Lawsuits on the Grounds of the Plaintiff’s Abuse of Rights” (最高人民法院关于知识产权侵权诉讼中被告以原告滥用权利为由请求赔偿合理开支问题的批复). The Approval is in response to a request for instructions from the Shanghai Higher People’s Court for a defendant’s request for compensation and allows for compensation in intellectual property infringement lawsuits …