Per the “Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Amending the ‘Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China’” (全国人民代表大会常务委员会关于修改〈中华人民共和国专利法〉的决定), the China’s National People’s Congress has decided to amend China’s Patent Law. The amendments will go into effect June 1, 2021. The amendments increase damages, extend design patent term, and introduce both patent term extension and adjustments among other changes. An unofficial translation of the Patent Law follows with changes indicated by strike though and underline.
Category: Patents
China’s National People’s Congress Approves Amended Patent Law
Per news reports from China’s Legal Daily and Xinhua, the 22nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress completed the revision of the Patent Law on October 17, 2020. The newly amended patent law will come into effect on June 1, 2021. As of writing, the text of the amended patent law has not been released so it is unknown exactly what changes have been made from the most recent draft for comments. However, the reports …
Chinese Patent Prosecution Flow
During prosecution of a Chinese invention patent application (as distinct from a utility model application), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) will issue over 10 notices over the typical course of the prosecution process. Most of these notices require responses with varying deadlines, which will be discussed further below.
China Releases Report on Development Status of the National Patent Agency Industry (2019)
On September 30, 2020, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released a report on the Development Status of the National Patent Agency Industry (2019) (全国专利代理行业发展状况(2019年)). 2019 highlights include China having 2,691 patent agencies compared to 796 agencies in 2010; 20,192 practicing patent agents compared to 6,437 in 2010; and 43,702 people registered for the patent agent qualification examination with 5,381 people passing.