On June 5, 2020 China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), which regulates market competition, monopolies, intellectual property, and drug safety, released a national plan to combat intellectual property infringement. The plan is officially entitled “Key Points of the National Work to Crack Down on Intellectual Property Infringement and the Production and Sale of Counterfeit and Inferior Commodities in 2020.” The plan lists 35 points in 6 areas covering trademark, patent, copyright, and trade secret protection and makes special emphasis …
China’s Patent Application Filings Continue Upsurge Surpassing 2019 Year-on-Year
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) just released statistics for January through May 2020 showing cumulative patent application filings year-to-date now exceed 2019’s filings at this time last year. Cumulatively, applicants filed 549,536 invention patent applications this year versus 542,106 last year. For the month, May 2020 invention patent filings were up almost 12% versus May 2019 with 114,854 invention patent application filings in May 2020 versus 102,835 invention patent applications filed in May 2019.
The China National Intellectual Property Administration Aims to Speed Up Patent Prosecution
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released its annual budget on June 11, 2020. Besides a significant amount of financial data, the budget shows performance goals and indicators. The current examination time to final disposition for an invention patent application is 22 months with a 2022 goal of 16.5 months. Patent invalidations are relatively fast at 6 months with a goal of maintaining this level.
China’s Supreme People’s Court Rules Customer Lists are not Trade Secrets
In decision (2019）最高法民再268号 dated December 16, 2019 and just recently published, the Supreme People’s Court of China (SPC) held that customer lists are not trade secrets even with signed confidentiality agreements. One of the defendants, former employees of the plaintiff, Huayang Xinxing Technology (Tianjin) Group Co., Ltd. , left Huayang to start Mai Da Keer (Tianjin) Technology Co., Ltd. after almost 20 years at Huayang. With their departure, the defendants took a customer list containing 43 customers’ data including the …