According to a study released November 19, 2020 by Incopat, China and the U.S. are running even on worldwide wireless communication patent application publications from January to October 2020. Specifically, in the field of H04W (wireless communication networks), which includes 5G, China and the U.S. both have 32% of the worldwide published patent applications. Japan comes in third with 15%. The top Chinese filer was Huawei with 8,607 published patent applications and the top U.S. filer was Qualcomm with 5,807 …
China’s Second Draft of Amended Criminal Law Retains Trade Secret Provision Targeting Foreigners
On October 21, 2020, China’s National People’s Congress released a second draft of the amended criminal law. Perhaps because of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) increased enforcement of the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) targeting China as a beneficiary, the Chinese draft retains a provision for foreign-related trade secret theft from the first draft. Specifically, Article 219 will have a new paragraph, “For stealing, spying, buying, or illegally providing trade secrets to foreign institutions, organizations, or personnel, it shall be punished …
Chinese Patent Filings Down 14% in October 2020
According to statistics released November 17, 2020, October 2020 Chinese invention patent applications filing dropped 14.5% versus September 2020. Similarly, utility model patent applications filings dropped almost 15%. While a drop was expected due to the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, the drop was much steeper than last year’s drop of 6.3% and 5.8% respectively. The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) did not provide a reason for the drop. Cumulative filings though are significantly higher than last year, …
China’s Supreme People’s Court Releases Provisions on Evidence in Intellectual Property Civil Litigation
China’s Supreme People’s Court released Provisions on Evidence in Intellectual Property Civil Litigation (最高人民法院关于知识产权民事诉讼证据的若干规定) on November 16, 2020 and goes into effect November 18, 2020. Some of the highlights include potential burden shifting in methods of manufacture claims, evidence needed to file a declaratory judgment action for non-infringement, admission of foreign-originated evidence, evidence preservation, and court-appointed experts.