The China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) formally announced the newly amended Patent Examination Guidelines (“Guidelines”) effective on November 1, 2019. The Guidelines were amended to improve patent quality and efficient examination. Highlights 1. Examiner interviews are made more available, allowing applicants to request interviews anytime during substantive examination. 2. Applicants may request expedited examination pursuant to “Regulation on Patent Prioritized Examination.” 3. For same-day filing of invention and utility model patent applications, by default, the invention patent application is …
Category: Patents
China National IP Administration (CNIPA) Extends Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program with Iceland and Egypt
CNIPA has extended the PPH pilot program with both Iceland and Egypt for 5 years each through June 30 2024. The China-Iceland PPH pilot was launched on July 1, 2014 and was extended for the first time on July 1, 2016 for a period of three years until June 30, 2019 while the China-Egypt PPH pilot was launched on July 1, 2017 for a period of two years until June 30, 2019. While the US has a PPH with Iceland, …
Best Patent Practices For US Companies With Chinese R&D
Chinese and U.S. patent law have significant differences. This article will discuss some of the incentives and long-term patent-related risks facing U.S. companies with research and development centers and inventors in China. Inventor Remuneration Article 16 of the China Patent Law requires employers (or other entity assigned patent rights) to provide inventors with reasonable remuneration. Articles 76- 78 of the Rules of Implementing the Patent Law provide a minimum of 3000 RMB (about $440) to be paid within three months …
Chinese Patent Filings Down Almost 10% in First Half of 2019
At a press conference earlier this month, a spokesperson for the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), announced that the number of Chinese invention patent applications filed in the first half of 2019 decreased by 9.4% year on year. Still, that amounted to 649,000 applications in half a year, which is more than the number of annual U.S. patent application filings. Chinese Trademark applications were also down. However, despite the overall decrease in patent filings, the number of foreign-originated Chinese …