On May 8, 2021, the State Council Information Office held a briefing on intellectual property. At the briefing, He Zhimin, deputy director of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), stated that the CNIPA firmly opposed and promptly cracked down on malicious trademark registration and “irregular” (or abnormal) patent applications. He stated, “Since the beginning of this year, in terms of trademark substantive examination, [CNIPA] has rejected more than 10,000 malicious trademark registration applications that are not intended for use; …
Category: Patents
China’s Supreme People’s Court Releases Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases in Chinese Courts in 2020
In follow up to the earlier release of the Top 10 Technical Intellectual Property (IP) Cases of 2020, the Supreme People’s Court of China has released the broader Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases in 2020 (2020年中国法院10大知识产权案件简介) on April 22, 2021. This list, in addition to technical IP cases, includes non-technical IP cases such as a Red Bull trademark case; a Lego criminal copyright case; as well as the Xiaoi patent invalidation case, which later led to a $1.4 billion USD …
China Utility Model Patent Application Filings Up 29% in 2020; Foreign-Originated Chinese Invention Patent Application Filings Down 3%
In the newly released China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) 2020 Annual Report (国家知识产权局2020年度报告) the number of invention patent applications filed in China in 2020 was 1.497 million, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%. Among them, there were 1.345 million domestic invention patent applications filed, accounting for 89.8% of the total, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%; there were 152,000 foreign invention patent applications filed in China, accounting for 10.2% of the total, a year-on-year decrease of 3.0%. Note China had ceased …
China’s National Intellectual Property Administration Releases Draft Amendments to Several Provisions Regarding the Regulation of Patent Applications
On May 6, 2021, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released Draft Amendments to Several Provisions Regarding the Regulation of Patent Applications for comment (关于规范申请专利行为的若干规定修改草案（征求意见稿)). The Amendments aim to supplement and improve the definition of irregular (i.e., low-quality) patent applications; to clearly stipulate the examination procedures for irregular patent applications; and to update and improve the relevant handling measures for irregular patent applications. Note that Article 3(5) may limit the ability of IP-holding companies to file Chinese patent applications depending …