In decision （2020）最高法知民终357号 released August 10, 2020, China’s Supreme People’s Court affirmed an earlier award of 1 million RMB (~$145 thousand USD) for infringement of utility model (UM) patent no. ZL201420522729.0. The UM relates to a selfie stick and has already survived 19 attempts at invalidation.
Category: Utility Model
Utility Model Patents: An Overlooked Chinese IP Right
Chinese utility model patents are often overlooked by U.S. applicants when filing patent applications in China. This might be due to a lack of familiarity with them, as the U.S. patent system does not separately provide a similar intellectual property right, and many inventions may not qualify for a UM patent due to limited subject matter eligibility. The China National Intellectual Property Administration grants UM patents only for products. The products “shall be objects manufactured by industrial methods, having definite …