On February 26, 2021, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court released a list of top 10 cases of technical intellectual property rights for 2020 that the tribunal ruled on. The list covers anti-suit injunctions, trade secret theft, punitive damages, software copyright infringement, utility model infringement, invention patent invalidation, dueling administrative and civil enforcement appeals of patents, integrated circuit layout design infringement, affirmative injunctions and antitrust.
EU-China Agreement Protecting Geographical Indications Entered into Force March 1, 2021
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced that the China-EU Geographical Indications Agreement went into effect March 1, 2021. Per the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), “a geographical indication (GI) is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. In order to function as a GI, a sign must identify a product as originating in a given place. In addition, the qualities, characteristics or …
China’s Supreme People’s Court Issues Law Interpretation for Intellectual Property Infringement
China’s Supreme People’s Court released and effective on March 3, 2021 the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on the Application of Punitive Damages to the Trial of Civil Cases of Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights (最高人民法院关于审理侵害知识产权民事案件适用惩罚性赔偿的解释) (法释〔2021〕4号). The Interpretation defines when a plaintiff may request punitive damages in civil intellectual property infringement cases; how People’s Courts should determine if punitive damages should be awarded; and how People’s Courts should calculate the amount of punitive damages. Note that no defenses …
China Remains Top Patent Cooperation Treaty Application Filer in 2020
In a report by the World Intellectual Property Organization dated March 2, 2021, China remained the top user of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with 68,720 applications for+16.1% year-on-year growth. Last year (2019), China had 59,193 PCT applications. Other top users of the PCT system were the U.S. (59,230 applications, +3%), Japan (50,520 applications, -4.1%), the Republic of Korea (20,060 applications, +5.2%) and Germany (18,643 applications, -3.7%).