On March 12, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Notice of the CNIPA on the in-depth development of the “Blue Sky” special rectification action (国家知识产权局关于深入开展“蓝天”专项整治行动的通知). In early 2019, CNIPA launched the Blue Sky special rectification action to clean up the intellectual property industry including cracking down on irregular patent applications and soliciting business by improper means. The current Notice states that CNIPA will continue to carry out Blue Sky rectification actions this year addressing specific IP …
China’s Supreme People’s Court Releases Typical Cases of Punitive Damages in Intellectual Property Infringement
China’s Supreme People’s Court released the “Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on the Application of Punitive Damages in the Trial of Civil Cases of Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights” on March 3, 2021. In order apply the Interpretation consistently and fairly, on March 15, 2021, the Supreme People’s Court released the “Typical cases of applying punitive damages in civil cases of infringement of intellectual property rights” (侵害知识产权民事案件适用惩罚性赔偿典型案例). The Typical Cases contains five trademark infringement cases and one theft of …
Shanxi Fines 7 Chinese Intellectual Property Firms for Unauthorized Practice of Law
As first reported by 知识产权界, in 2020 the the Shanxi Provincial Market Supervision Bureau has fined seven intellectual property law firms in Shanxi province for unauthorized practice of law relating to patent applications. The Bureau confiscated illegal income and also fined the firms, collecting in all 534,290 RMB (about $82,120 USD). The sanctions are based on the China National Intellectual Property Administration’s (CNIPA) push under the Blue Sky program to clean up the patent agency business in China. This follows …
China Ceases Publishing Patent Application Filings Data
Update: In May 2021, CNIPA released 2020 annual filing data. CNIPA no longer publishes monthly filing data. Without notice, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) appears to have ceased publishing data on the number of patent applications filed monthly or annually. CNIPA used to publish monthly and annual data on the number of invention patent applications, utility model applications and design patent applications filed. However, the last application filing data released was for November 2020, in which Chinese invention …